All Golds v Doncaster KPL1 2017 Final
Four days in Toronto WRITTEN BY PATRICK BAINES put into words what greets you when you walk around the corner and see Niagara Falls for the first time. The roar is the first thing you notice as the water from the river smashes down the falls. You stand there completely transfixed on the sheer volume of water that comes spilling over the vertical drop. Back home in Wales I always enjoyed visiting Llanrhaeadr waterfall, after visiting Niagara I’m not sure I’ll be able to take the trickle of the Welsh ‘waterfall’ seriously after seeing the legendary Niagara Falls! 22 Well what a weekend that was! Niagara Falls, Toronto Blue Jays v Houston Astros at the iconic Rogers Centre, hours of fun in downtown Toronto but best of all – the Toronto Wolfpack v All Golds at the Lamport stadium on Saturday afternoon. We departed Gatwick airport at midday on Thursday afternoon. The longest flight I’d been on before this was a three hour jaunt over to Malta so I was a little concerned as to how I’d find the long trek to Canada. I don’t enjoy sitting in the same place for too long so this eight hour journey was going to be a tough one. My main problem was my inability to fall asleep. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get off which meant the final couple of hours of our journey were’t too much fun. After what seemed like an eternity we were pulling up at Toronto airport. The All Golds had arrived! After our eight hour flight we were collected by a bus at Toronto airport. A representative from the Wolfpack accompanied us on the 45 minute journey to our accommodation and handed us bottles of water and bananas for the journey. A small gesture but a very welcome one. We were based at the York University campus, 13 miles from the city centre. Our rooms were spacious and the beds comfortable. After a fantastic meal put on by the Wolfpack we headed for bed. Everyone would be rising early on Friday morning for our final training session before the big game. The 90 minute training session went well. We were all finished by midday and had the rest of the day to ourselves. Niagara Falls is just two hours from Toronto so we decided to rent a few vehicles and get on the road. My map reading skills aren’t the best and for some inexplicable reason I was handed the responsibility of sitting in the passenger seat and guiding our driver to the Falls. All was going well for about 30 seconds until I told him to turn off the motorway and drive in the wrong direction. After that initial mishap we made smooth progress and parked up right next to the Falls. It’s hard to On the way back we noticed that the Blue Jays – Toronto’s baseball team – were playing at the Rogers Centre. We queued for tickets and noticed that the home town team were already 9-0 down! With the game as good as over we were www.allgoldsrugby.com @AllGolds facebook.com/AllGoldsRugby
told by some upset Blue Jays fans to save our money and not bother buying tickets but we’d come this far, we weren’t about to back down now. The Rogers Centre is a huge stadium and, like every other sport in the city, well supported by the Toronto natives. Baseball is the polar opposite to rugby league – slow and far less intense – but I can see the appeal. It’s nice to be able to just sit there and watch with a beer in hand. Saturday was game day – the day we’d been looking forward to for months. Toronto Wolfpack are a full-time team with players who have played at the very top of the rugby league tree. Our team was packed full of youngsters who train twice a week. We were up against it but I was confident the players would do themselves proud. We were missing a good six or seven players with injuries or who were playing for England at the student World Cup in Australia. The players who came in were good enough though so we wouldn’t be using any excuses. In the end we were well beaten 62- 10 but every single All Golds player did themselves proud. A result like that is to be expected when a fulltime side of experienced Super League and NRL players face off against a team that has only been going four seasons. Our head coach was more than satisfied with the effort and desire his players showed. Unfortunately the effort came at a cost with a number of players injured during the bruising encounter. Alex Gaskell, who was playing for the first time since his leg injury in March, left the field on crutches. Phil Cowburn suffered an injury to his knee, our captain Steve Parry’s game was also cut short after his ankle gave way in the tackle. Danny Fallon had his arm in a sling and Luke Stephens, who did so well to set up Lewis Reece for our final try, had concussion. Rugby league is a brutal sport. The scenes after the full-time hooter will stay with me for a long time. It’s worth noting that in League 1 the post match etiquette is – shake hands with the opposition, walk back to the changing rooms, get changed, have a plate full of pasta then pile onto the bus home. Toronto do things a little differently. The seven thousand spectators all vacate their seats and head to the pitch side to shake hands and take selfies with the players. The fans really appreciate the effort and the players, having run their blood to water in 25 degree heat, are all too happy to pose for photographs. The most pleasing thing, from a rugby league perspective, was the number of children and women in attendance. Children are the future of our sport and you have to applaud the Wolfpack for getting so many youngsters through the gate. The fun doesn’t stop there though. At the end of the pitch the Wolfpack have installed beer tents. What better way for players and fans to mingle after the game than over a couple of cold beers and a hotdog? On Saturday I was approached by countless Wolfpack fans who wanted to buy me a beer, I think they thought I was a player! Canadians have a reputation of being friendly and polite but the guys at the Lamport Stadium really do go out of their way to make you feel welcome. I’ve been to many of the biggest sporting events in the world – Wimbledon, the Open Championship, Premier League football and Test Match cricket and I’ve never felt more welcome than I was on Saturday evening in Toronto. I’d go back in an instant if travel wasn’t such an issue. After the game the players and staff headed into town for a few well earned beers. On Sunday morning we ventured back to the city centre and enjoyed a fine meal at the harbour. Then the dread started to set in – our Canadian adventure was almost over. We made our way back to camp and packed our suitcases ready for the flight home. Rugby league is a fantastic sport and it’s heartwarming to the people who care about its future to see the Canadians have taken to it so quickly. To get over 7000 people to watch what is a brand new sport is nothing short of incredible and everyone at the Wolfpack should be very proud what they’ve achieved in such a short space of time. I’d like to finish by saying thank you to the fans who came to the game. You made us feel so welcome and all the players and staff were blown away by your generosity and warmth. Rugby league is the greatest game of them all, you’re in for quite a journey with the Wolfpack. I hope our paths cross again one day. 23 Subscribe to our website mailing list to get exclusive All Golds news first.
- Page 1 and 2: FREE MATCHDAY MAGAZINE JULY 16 th 2
- Page 3 and 4: ALL GOLD CONTENTS AND INFO 04 WELCO
- Page 5 and 6: Design solutions for any media... D
- Page 7 and 8: Money troubles were never far away
- Page 9 and 10: “We scored two tries and could ha
- Page 11 and 12: Subscribe to our website mailing li
- Page 13 and 14: STAR MAN ONE TO WATCH Scrum-half Ja
- Page 15 and 16: Three Barrow tries in the opening t
- Page 17 and 18: 50 CLUB Parry Purslow 17 Reece Walt
- Page 19 and 20: third, travel to second-placed Fore
- Page 21: Sticking together, the three friend
- Page 25 and 26: LTS 2017 SCRUM HALF PROP HOOKER PRO
Four days in Toronto<br />
WRITTEN BY PATRICK BAINES<br />
put into words what greets you<br />
when you walk around the corner<br />
and see Niagara Falls for the first<br />
time. The roar is the first thing you<br />
notice as the water from the river<br />
smashes down the falls. You stand<br />
there completely transfixed on the<br />
sheer volume of water that comes<br />
spilling over the vertical drop. Back<br />
home in Wales I always enjoyed<br />
visiting Llanrhaeadr waterfall, after<br />
visiting Niagara I’m not sure I’ll be<br />
able to take the trickle of the Welsh<br />
‘waterfall’ seriously after seeing the<br />
legendary Niagara Falls!<br />
22<br />
Well what a weekend that was!<br />
Niagara Falls, Toronto Blue Jays<br />
v Houston Astros at the iconic<br />
Rogers Centre, hours of fun in<br />
downtown Toronto but best of all –<br />
the Toronto Wolfpack v <strong>All</strong> <strong>Golds</strong> at<br />
the Lamport stadium on Saturday<br />
afternoon.<br />
We departed Gatwick airport at<br />
midday on Thursday afternoon.<br />
The longest flight I’d been on<br />
before this was a three hour jaunt<br />
over to Malta so I was a little<br />
concerned as to how I’d find the<br />
long trek to Canada. I don’t enjoy<br />
sitting in the same place for too<br />
long so this eight hour journey was<br />
going to be a tough one. My main<br />
problem was my inability to fall<br />
asleep. No matter how hard I tried<br />
I couldn’t get off which meant the<br />
final couple of hours of our journey<br />
were’t too much fun. After what<br />
seemed like an eternity we were<br />
pulling up at Toronto airport. The <strong>All</strong><br />
<strong>Golds</strong> had arrived!<br />
After our eight hour flight we<br />
were collected by a bus at Toronto<br />
airport. A representative from<br />
the Wolfpack accompanied us<br />
on the 45 minute journey to our<br />
accommodation and handed us<br />
bottles of water and bananas for<br />
the journey. A small gesture but a<br />
very welcome one.<br />
We were based at the York<br />
University campus, 13 miles from<br />
the city centre. Our rooms were<br />
spacious and the beds comfortable.<br />
After a fantastic meal put on by<br />
the Wolfpack we headed for bed.<br />
Everyone would be rising early on<br />
Friday morning for our final training<br />
session before the big game.<br />
The 90 minute training session<br />
went well. We were all finished by<br />
midday and had the rest of the<br />
day to ourselves. Niagara Falls is<br />
just two hours from Toronto so we<br />
decided to rent a few vehicles and<br />
get on the road. My map reading<br />
skills aren’t the best and for some<br />
inexplicable reason I was handed<br />
the responsibility of sitting in the<br />
passenger seat and guiding our<br />
driver to the Falls. <strong>All</strong> was going<br />
well for about 30 seconds until I<br />
told him to turn off the motorway<br />
and drive in the wrong direction.<br />
After that initial mishap we made<br />
smooth progress and parked up<br />
right next to the Falls. It’s hard to<br />
On the way back we noticed that<br />
the Blue Jays – Toronto’s baseball<br />
team – were playing at the Rogers<br />
Centre. We queued for tickets and<br />
noticed that the home town team<br />
were already 9-0 down! With the<br />
game as good as over we were<br />
www.allgoldsrugby.com<br />
@<strong>All</strong><strong>Golds</strong> facebook.com/<strong>All</strong><strong>Golds</strong>Rugby
Change language