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It’s hard not to realize how silly the question is when the response is “well, why not?”

That’s how North Vancouver’s Andrea Burk replied to the question of “why rugby league?”

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Burk, long-time star of the Canadian women’s rugby team — that’s rugby union, not rugby league — is set to play for Canada at her second World Cup of the year.

This time it’s the Rugby League World Cup, the global championship of the 13-a-side game, which is far less well-known in Canada.

Long a sport whose popularity was limited to its birthplace in the north of England, in Australia and pockets of France and New Zealand, a push to grow the game to new territories has been on for some time now.

In Canada, that’s most famously been represented by the Toronto Wolfpack, who dominated the third division of the English league this summer, their first in competition. The Wolfpack have pulled in thousands of diehard fans and built themselves a unique buzz in the Centre of the Universe.