TORONTO — The Toronto Wolfpack will host Toulouse Olympique, Widnes Vikings, London Broncos and Hull Kingston Rovers in their playoff push for promotion to the elite Super League.
The transatlantic rugby league team will play away at Halifax RLFC, Salford Red Devils and Leeds Rhinos. The full schedule will be released Wednesday.
Joining Toronto in the so-called Super 8s Qualifiers are fellow Betfred Championship sides London Broncos (16-6-1), Toulouse (16-6-1) and Halifax (16-6-1) in their push for promotion.
Toronto (20-2-1) finished the regular season on a losing note Saturday, beaten 30-12 by Featherstone Rovers before a season-high announced crowd of 8,217 at Lamport Stadium. It marked its first ever home loss in 20 outings (19-1-0) but did not matter in the playoff scheme of things given Toronto had already clinched first place in the second-tier Championship.
The top four Championship teams now face off with the bottom four Super League teams — Leeds (8-13-2), Hull KR (8-14-1), Salford (7-16-0) and Widnes (3-21-0) — to fill four berths in the first-tier league next year.
The eight teams will play each other once. The top three clubs earn Super League status while No. 4 will take on No. 5 in what is dubbed the Million Pound Game to see who joins them.
The bottom three will play in the Championship in 2019.
Featherstone (16-7-0) finished in fifth place, one point out of the Super 8 Qualifiers.
The playoffs are expected to kick off Aug. 11 and 12.
Toronto coach Paul Rowley has expressed frustration that the playoff format is not carved in stone, so teams have to wait for the sport’s governing body to issue the schedule.
“I’ve got to the point where I don’t care who we play, when we play. Just tell me when it is and we’ll turn up,” said Rowley.
The Wolfpack are part of the problem, however, given the complication of transatlantic travel, especially on short notice. With Toulouse also involved, there are teams from three countries in the Super 8s Qualifiers.
As part of its agreement with the Rugby Football League, the Wolfpack will take care of the travel costs of all the playoff teams including the Super League sides. That burden is eased by a sponsorship deal with Air Transat.
Toronto went 1-1 against London this season and 2-0 against both Toulouse and Halifax. It is 0-2 over the last two years against Super League opposition, losing to Salford (29-22 in 2017) and Warrington (66-10 in May) in the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup.
The Wolfpack started play in 2017, winning promotion after finishing first in the third-tier League 1. Their overall record in all competitions is 45-5-2.
Toronto has been a fully professional side since Day 1, unlike all the teams in League 1 and some in the Championship.