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Toronto Wolfpack take another step towards Super League promotion

Toronto Wolfpack take another step towards Super League promotion

The Toronto Wolfpack kept on track for Super League promotion with a tense 20-12 win over Widnes on Saturday afternoon in Toronto's Lamport Stadium, relegating the Vikings from English rugby league's top flight after a seven-year stay.

It marked Toronto's first win over a Super League side in five tries.

Down 12-10, Blake Wallace cut through three tacklers from close-range in the 57th minute to put the Wolfpack ahead 16-12 with the conversion. Gareth O'Brien added penalties in the 67th and 70th minutes to stretch the lead to 20-12.

Toronto's defence then rose to the occasion, blunting desperate Widnes attacks.

With London and Toulouse also defeating Super League opposition on the other side of the Atlantic, Toronto (4-2-0) needed the win. The Wolfpack finish out the Super 8s qualifiers next week at Leeds Rhinos, with a chance to finish in the top three and secure automatic promotion.

Salford, Leeds, Hull Kingston Rovers and Toronto all have eight points, with London and Toulouse on six.

The game was played on a mild 14-degree Celsius afternoon at Lamport Stadium with some of the season-high 8,281 crowd on hand wearing western gear as part of the Country Day promotion.

Cory Paterson and Matty Russell also scored tries for Toronto. O'Brien kicked two conversions and two penalties. The Toronto fullback, normally on target, also missed a conversion and two penalties.

Joe Mellor and Chris Dean scored tries for Widnes, which trailed 10-8 at the half. Krisnan Inu added a conversion and a penalty.

Widnes (1-5-0), which had lost 17 straight prior to a win last weekend, arrived knowing a defeat could mean relegation. The Vikings finished last in the Super League at 3-20-0 and lost their first four Super 8s Qualifiers.

The Super 8s Qualifiers pit the bottom four teams in the Super League (Leeds Rhinos, Hull Kingston Rovers, Salford Red Devils, Widnes) against the top four in the Championship (Toronto, London Broncos, Toulouse Olympique and Halifax RLFC).

After a round-robin competition, the top three sides earn Super League status. No. 4 faces No. 5 in the so-called "Million Pound Game" scheduled for Oct. 7 to see who joins them. Salford, Leeds and Hull KR started the day one through three with Toronto fourth.

The promotion and relegation system will change next year with a simple one-up and one-down format.

The standings tightened Saturday as London Broncos (3-3-0) held on for an 11-8 win over Salford Red Devils (4-2-0) and Toulouse (3-3-0) won 34-23 over Hull Kingston Rovers (4-2-0).

On Sunday, Leeds (4-1-0) plays at Halifax (0-5-0).

Toronto had already beaten Halifax, London and Toulouse. It lost to Salford and Hull KR.

It was an even start with Ashton Sims and Darcy Lussick, Toronto's big men, battering the Widnes line. But the Vikings began to pressure the Toronto defence and Mellor went over in the 13th minute.

Widnes forward Charlie Gubb was hurt on the ensuing kickoff, taking a blow to the head in a crunching three-man Toronto tackle. The Wolfpack forced a goalline dropout and the powerful Paterson broke a Joe Lyons tackle to score in the 17th, tying the score at 6-6 after the conversion.

An Inu penalty made it 8-6 in the 22nd minute.

Toronto centre Chase Stanley was sent to the sin-bin in the 24th minute for a illegal tackle on winger Owen Buckley. The New Zealand international was also yellow-carded two weeks ago against Salford.

The Wolfpack went ahead 10-8 in the 33rd minute with Russell touching down in the corner.

Widnes came out fast in the second half, pulling ahead 12-10 on a fine Dean run that left two would-be Toronto tacklers in his wake.

Both teams had tries waved off for handling errors.

Toronto has lost just seven of 58 competitive matches (49-7-2) over two years, with four of those setbacks at the hands of Super League opposition in Challenge Cup or playoff play.

The only other losses have come to York City Knights in League 1 play last year and London and Featherstone Rovers in the Championship this year.