Saturday, 28 July 2018

Toronto Wolfpack 12, Featherstone Rovers 30, Lamport Stadium, Toronto, ON

The Toronto Wolfpack RLFC is a Canadian professional rugby league club, based in here Toronto, which competes in the British Rugby Football League system.  In 2018, the club is competing in the Championship, having begun to play in 2017 in League 1 and won a promotion in its inaugural season.  The club is noted as being the first North American team to play in the Rugby Football League system, the first fully professional rugby league team in Canada and the world's first transatlantic rugby league team.  Their home stadium is Lamport Stadium (aka "The Den"), which is just a couple blocks from where Gord and I live.  We are season ticket holders.

Today the Wolfpack were playing the Featherstone Rovers.  This was the last regular game for the Wolfpack.  They have already won a spot in the playoffs and the Rovers were still in the running for one.

The game started earlier than usual at 1:30pm ... they usually start at 4:30pm.  We stopped in at the Wolfpack store before the game and bought a couple shirts. They had clinched Betfred Championship Shield a couple weeks ago and it's on display in the store.

Gord
Me and Gord

We ran into Jefferson, the Wolfpack mascot, in the stadium.

Jefferson and Gord

The Wolfpack players huddled during their practice.


Our friends, Liz and Jamie, joined us for today's game.

Jamie, Gord, Liz and I

God Save the Queen and O Canada were sung before the game.


And the game began ...

Looking east towards downtown

At the end of the first half, the Wolfpack were losing  16 - 6.


During the intermission, there was a show with Medieval Times.

Jefferson was knighted

Then the second half began ...


Attendance was 8,217 ... the largest of the season.


Alas, the Wolfpack lost 30 - 12.  It was their first loss at Lamport Stadium.  Thankfully the loss doesn't mean much to them in the standings.

The Rovers acknowledged their rather
large cheering section

The beer garden usually stays open for a couple hours after a game but was closing early today.

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