The Toronto Wolfpack won’t play at home until May, but the first-year rugby league club is already making headlines from England to Australia.

Late in last Saturday’s win over top amateur club Siddal, Wolfpack prop Fui Fui Moi Moi earned a red card for nearly beheading an ball carrier and his ejection made news down under, where Moi Moi once starred in the National Rugby League.

While Moi Moi’s residual fame keeps the Wolfpack newsworthy in Australia, the club still has to figure out how gain and sustain attention in Toronto. Saturday the club makes its regular season debut in English rugby league’s third division, visiting London Skolars in a clash with elevated stakes.

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Winning is important, but Wolfpack players and coaches say winning with flair is crucial. They recognize they’re also in the entertainment business, and that standing out from Toronto’s pro sports incumbents means putting on a show.

“(Success means) a win, but also starting to put together the style of rugby we normally would play,” says Wolfpack captain Rhys Jacks. “For the whole season, it’s finishing first in our competition and getting promoted. Anything less is simply not good enough.”

After dropping a 26-20 decision to Super League standouts Hull in an exhibition game the club played its first competitive match last weekend, outlasting Siddal to advance to round four of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup, rugby league’s version of the FA Cup.

Midway through the second half the Wolfpack trailed by two points before overpowering England’s top amateur club to win 14-6. But if the margin of victory was slimmer than expected, the match also yielded some encouragement.

Where Siddal normal attracts roughly 400 spectators to home games, their match with the Wolfpack drew more than 1,000 paying customers according to rugby league’s official website. Meanwhile, the league says more than 41,000 viewers logged on to BBC’s webcast of the game, nearly twice the normal traffic for early-round Challenge Cup matches.

Wolfpack head coach Paul Rowley has been monitoring the media and fan attention surrounding the team in his native England, and says the comparatively large crowds for last Saturday’s win reflect a genuine curiosity about the upstart Toronto club. But he also acknowledges addition of a North American team has rankled observers who oppose change, and that some viewers probably tuned in to see the Wolfpack lose.

“Some people are a little bit skeptical and standoffish and not jumping in with two feet just yet,” Rowley says. “Nobody likes change. After 110 years, somebody wants to come in and start changing things it’s a scary prospect. But either change or die a slow death.”

Either way, they’re paying attention. The Wolfpack’s medium-term challenge is to lure local sports fans and keep them engaged over a season that lasts through September.

Club CEO Eric Perez says the pace of season ticket sales has plateaued, but the team is progressing with plans to open a merchandise shop near their home field at Lamport Stadium

And Wednesday night the team announced it had reached a broadcast deal with GameTV, a Toronto-based cable network diversifying a schedule heavy with reality show reruns, early 2000s movies and paid programming.

Their sports portfolio includes UFC and pro wrestling shows repurposed from the Fight Network, a sister company. Wolfpack matches give the network an opportunity to broadcast live sports.

“GameTV is positioned to be a powerhouse in Canadian sport, and we are excited to be able to be a part of this fantastic platform,” Perez said in a news release published Wednesday.

The TV deal also allows the Wolfpack to establish a local presence in the eight-week gap between its first league game and its May 6 home opener.

They’ll arrive in Toronto facing fierce competition for sports fans’ time and money, with both the Blue Jays and Toronto FC likely riding early-season optimism to big crowds, and the Leafs and Raptors aiming for the playoffs.

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The predicament is similar to the one the Wolfpack faces on the field Saturday.

Rowley says the Skolars’ home field is 15 yards narrower than a standard rugby league playing surface, and the club further shrinks the pitch by fielding big players who slow the game’s pace by clogging running lanes. Winning Saturday means confronting the Skolars the same way the Wolfpack plans to attack the task of becoming relevant in a crowded Toronto sports market.

“We’re a tough set,” Rowley says. “We’ve got some tactical things we’re good at, but ultimately we’ve got to go toe-to-toe and go through them, not round them.”