Super League newcomers preparing to renew contact with SBW once RWC is over
Brian McDermott has confirmed Super League newcomers Toronto Wolfpack will renew their interest in All Black Sonny Bill Williams after the World Cup in Japan is over.
The Canadian outfit are on the lookout for big-name signings following their promotion from the Championship and intend to follow up on their initial approach to the dual-code international once his Rugby Union World Cup commitments are over.
McDermott explained that Toronto want to bring in a David Beckham-type player to do for the Wolfpack what the former Manchester United favourite did for LA Galaxy and that Williams fits the bill. “Sonny Bill Williams has shown interest in us and that’s what it is at the moment,” McDermott said
“He’s currently busy with the World Cup so I wouldn’t ever dare to suggest that he is more than interested in coming but the answer wasn’t a ‘no’ once we made contact so that’s something we’d like to follow up.”
Toronto, who do not take any central funding, have been bankrolled from their formation three years ago by Australian mining magnate David Argyle and he remains committed to bringing in big-name recruits despite stepping down as chairman.
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“Our club would want to have a name that’s absolutely international that everybody would recognise and help the profile of our game, very much like David Beckham did for Major League Soccer,” McDermott added.
“But he would have to be a very good player as well, he’s got to be able to do the job that I want him to do. There would be no token player or just a headline-grabbing player.
“So, whoever it may be, you go mention the five highest-profile rugby players – league or union – around the world and we’d be interested and our club would get those. David Argyle will resource each one of those signings.”
The Wolfpack spent heavily on recruitment following the appointment of former Leeds boss McDermott 12 months ago and director of rugby Brian Noble says the plan is to keep 90 per cent of the players that helped gain promotion.
Steven Hansen taking current events as a positive. #RugbyWorldCup #RWC2019 #AllBlacks pic.twitter.com/0pRocJUutW
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McDermott says the club have already identified key targets and will aim to finalise deals ahead of the start of pre-season training on November 10. “We need at least four players – somebody in the front row, an outside back, a back row and someone around the ruck area – and there are four players there that we’ve identified,” he added.
“We’ve been on with recruitment all year but the reality is those people we were speaking to weren’t sure whether we would be in Super League or not so we’ll be having more solid conversations now.”
Toronto realised their five-year plan to reach Super League with two years to spare and McDermott says the priority in 2020 will be to avoid relegation. “The reality is we want to survive first,” he said. “You look at what London Broncos did this year, which I thought was extremely good and they won a load of games, but the dynamic was that everybody around them won a lot of games as well so they ultimately ended up getting relegated.
“So survival for sure is the reality of what we’ve got to do but quietly look a bit further towards the top end than the bottom end.”
– Press Association
WATCH: The moment two of Saturday’s Rugby World Cup games were officially cancelled
Comments on RugbyPass
Dickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to comments