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In October 2014 I interviewed the men behind the new Toronto Wolfpack venture. Here's a revisit of the article, which appeared in Rugby League World magazine, now their vision has become a reality.

BOSS the bulldog is blinking and panting in the sunshine outside a cafe in Liberty Village, a trendy suburb in downtown Toronto.

Behind him on the other side of the road is Lamport Stadium, home of Canadian rugby league.

And behind me as we leave the cafe are the two men who want to see Championship games played there in just two years' time.

I spent two hours in the company of Eric Perez and Cory Tukeli, chairman and president of Rugby League Canada.

It seems a fitting omen there's a dog so readily associated with rugby league - with Canterbury, with Batley, with England - facing us when we head over to the stadium for a look around. Maybe it's just the family of resident stray cats who live there that interest Boss.

They'd treated me to a breakfast at the School Cafe and when the attractive, tattooed waitress asks me how I'd like my eggs I could probably have said "on your head, with sparklers" such is this country's attention to customer satisfaction.

I settle for poached (and opt for them in front of me on the table), sit back and listen to an extraordinary story of ambition, innovation, chutzpah - and a man in a clown suit.

Perez and Tukeli's vision started when the pair were in England and watched a Leeds v Bradford game on TV.

Perez says: "We were in Birmingham watching Sky Sports and the rugby league was on. I thought it was incredible and my immediate thought was 'we don't have that in Canada'.

"I watched Cory's reaction compared to rugby union and we both immediately realised union was boring. This was the game.

"Canadians love sports and the fact this was fast paced and physical with finesse, we just thought it would be ideal for the Canadian market.

"It was brought to these shores from immigrants who came from Yorkshire, Cumbria, Lancashire as a street game and that developed into Canadian Football. We thought, let's bring it back."

Tukeli adds: "Let's not deprive the next generation. We didn't get to see it as kids, we didn't get to play it but if future generations do then we've made our mark."

The pair returned home and first step in the journey was dialogue with the International Federation who told them the best thing to do was to start with a recognised international programme.

Perez says: "So we spoke to the US in 2010 and asked them if we could play them. They said yes but only problem was the only date they could do was in eight weeks' time.

"We had no players, no coaches, no uniforms, no stadium. There was nothing other than a website.

"We went around stadiums all around Toronto, went to universities within a two-mile radius and finally found Kingston which is a city halfway between here and Ottawa.

"There's an institution there called Queen's which has 30,000 students and Richardson Stadium. We met with the athletics director who'd gone to Australia to play rugby and had landed in New South Wales so played league.

"It was fate. He knew what we were talking about."

Perez and Tukeli, both 34, had backgrounds in advertising and marketing so promoting the game came naturally. First thing to do was to get noticed.

Easily done. Tukeli dressed in a clown costume and stood by the side of the road near the campus, they made a radio ad in a Scottish accent and started getting some attention from the students.

But the pair needed players. What you read next comes straight from a Hollywood sports movie scriptwriters' think-tank.

Tukeli says: "We didn't know much about the sport so went on that ever relaible source Wikipedia and looked at all the players' positions and worked out what attributes you needed to play rugby league. We then scouted rugby union players."

Perez says: "I went on Excel and created a matrix based on all the things we needed in a player and we found players who fitted that.

"After a game I'd approach people, give them my card and say 'do you want to play for Canada at rugby league?'

"We ended up getting a team together and on game day we had over a thousand people and we only lost by one try. Next year USA qualified for the World Cup.

"Most importantly people were engaged by what they saw. They loved it and wanted more so we realised the next step was to get it on television."

The pair spoke to the RFL and managed to get Super League aired on Canadian TV. But that wasn't enough…more Hollywood.

"We thought we needed our own Match of the Day style programme," says Perez. "Two games of Super League are not enough. How am I going to follow Classy Cas if I support them but can't see their tries?

"So we made our own Boots n All. We had no experience of TV but we pitched a show, signed a deal and every Thursday it goes out. We get all the footage from Opta and then we cut it up.

"Three weeks before our first show we didn't know how to do this so we knocked on people's doors asking them how."

Tukeli says: "There's a cost for a camera crew. Purchase the camera, do it yourself."

Perez hosts the show and Tukeli is cameraman and also does voiceovers.

Perez says: "We've brought rugby league to primetime TV over here."

The domestic build-up continued after that initial international.

A league was started with Toronto City Saints, Scarborough Centurions, Yorke Region Reds and Niagara Bobcats, a two hour drive from the city. Over on the west coast in British Columbia a six team competition kicked off.

Tukeli had the idea to found the Caribbean Cup to tie in with Toronto's huge carnival and Canada beat Jamaica 40-10 for the country's first ever victory.

One year after that opener against the USA and they defeated them 18-16 and there have since been visits from Lebanon and English Lionhearts.

The crowds have risen too with around 6,000 watching Canada Wolverines, coached by former Leigh star Stuart Donlan, against the Lionhearts.

So who are the fans?

Perez says: "Our demographic is 18-35-year-olds with young families from the Liberty Village area. We get celebrities here, music people like to come."

As we speak three women at a nearby table get up to leave. It's fair to say they've not been beaten by the ugly stick.

Perez says: "That's our type of fan. Fifty per cent of our supporters are women and they like to party. This is a place to meet girls.

"We start our games at seven and we're still partying at 11pm. One end of the ground is called the Beer Garden and we have about 1,000 people who hang around after the game.

"The players shower up and join us after the game and they are our superstars. Kids are running round on the pitch. It's the place to be."

Whether it will be the place for be for English second tier rugby teams and their fans is the next step on the journey.

The Canadians have met our current Championship clubs and received a favourable response. The RFL will decide their fate soon.

RLC say they will pay £200,000 to sponsor the competition, pay for all clubs' travel and hotel expenses and allocate around 250 tickets which the club can then sell to fans so they make a profit.

The Toronto franchise - name to be decided, though we chucked a few around the breakfast table - will be on the road for the first two months of the season due to the harshness of the Canadian winter.

If they do get the green light they see this city as just the start.

Perez says: "It will be the only pro rugby team in Canada and we will become the team of Canada, not just Toronto.

"We want to be the first mover too. The NFL wants to come to London, we want to beat them to it.

"This is a 10-15 year plan. It will move fast and I want to get to a point where we expand to other cities and we are handpicking guys from American Football to play rugby league."

As I leave the pair to catch the King West streetcar into the centre of this engaging city I stop at a road sign for Joe Shuster way.

Time will decide whether this bid is fantasy football or a true breakthrough but maybe the sign is another omen.

Shuster was a Toronto native who co-created Superman for Action Comics and if this particular dream does come true the side will need a few men of steel to see it through.

Perez says: "This is everything we do. This is our life. We have devoted everything to our sport."

Good luck to them.