Hunter will ask for the competition’s salary cap to be dramatically altered, for extreme transparency to be introduced and for a rethink on the central distribution of funds. The Canadian franchise also wants the Rugby Football League to positively represent them on the issue of immigration with the UK Home Office. Williams, at the moment, could be refused re-entry to the UK the same way prop Darcy Lussick was last season. Toronto’s players are based in northern England for long stretches of the season, making it a grey area from an immigration perspective. This is especially the case if their families join them – or even seek work. The club believes other sports’ governing bodies in Britain are firm with the Home Office in such situations but the RFL is meek. A declaration that the Wolfpack is a tier-two affiliated company would resolve many of the issues, they believe. SBW bowed out of rugby with victory against Wales in the bronze medal World Cup play-off. Credit:Getty Rather than ask for the £2 million ($3.7m) they voluntarily forgo from TV money, the Wolfpack will ask for where it and other funds are going to be made public.

Argyle argues Williams will also help bolster the coffers of each club that hosts matches against the Wolfpack next year – including ‘home’ games transferred to London, York and Leeds – and he is unconvinced those funds will be used wisely. “Fans everywhere need to know the people who are taking a cut of their gate money, their TV subscriptions and merchandise sales are doing what they are charged with doing – growing the game,” he told the Herald from Toronto. "I want this to be grassroots. This is in the interests of all fans that there is greater transparency and those with ambition are not held back. “With this hashtag we want to signal that the fans will hold people accountable from now on – all over the world.” The owner has plans to produce replica Williams jerseys with the hashtag emblazoned across the back.

In British rugby league circles, the handing of the Bradford Bulls’ licence to a consortium which went on to almost double the club’s debt has brought the issue of governance and central decision making into sharp focus. Having removed himself from official duties after a racism row, Argyle believes he can utilise the global publicity generated by his signing of Williams to agitate for positive change within the sport.

Williams’ signing was front page in the New Zealand Herald yesterday – but just the prospect of him signing was worthy of a full page last week in the Toronto Star, which described him as a “one-man economic stimulus package”. For a team that is still a fringe attraction in North America's fourth largest city, the Wolfpack have been welcomed by the region's establishment. Mayor John Tory is expected to formally welcome 34-year-old Williams to Canada and the most likely venue for the signing announcement is Canada House on Trafalgar Square in London. To understand why, it's important to note that aside from the NHL’s Maple Leafs and the CFL’s Argonauts, Toronto’s major professional sides play imported sports. The Major League Soccer side, Toronto FC, the Major League Baseball team, the Blue Jays, and the NBA’s Raptors all rely enormously on imports in a city that boasts the highest per capita immigration rate in the world.

Complaints from northern English ‘cloth cappers’ that they have no Canadians on their roster mystify the Wolfpack’s local fan base. As a city Toronto has none of the historical prejudices rugby league encounters in England or even in Sydney and Brisbane where despite its prosperity it is still linked with a lower socio-economic demographic and struggles to attract blue-chip sponsors. Argyle, a US-educated Australian who earned his money in mining and entertains visiting fans at Katana – the Toronto sushi bar he owns – annoyed some South Pacific delegates at an International Rugby League congress in York last year by continually referring to “rugby” and refusing to say “league”. But as a West Australian, his primary exposure to either code was rugby union at the University of Michigan, where he played alongside current Wolfpack broadcast head Jeff Hagan.

He bought a rugby league franchise because he could – rugby union is too well established with labyrinthine bureaucracy for such a cross-jurisdictional club like the trans-Atlantic Wolfpack to be possible. League’s northern hemisphere financial fragility makes it an ideal target for disrupters such as Argyle. Already, the modest semi-professional Hemel Stags have been purchased by Wolfpack founder Eric Perez and their application to be transferred to Ottawa has been conditionally approved. Loading The timing of all these developments has a certain serendipity. In June 1951, Australia suffered only their fourth loss to a new national opponent, France. Two years later, the United States All Stars toured Australasia and the game in North America has struggled ever since just as no one else managed to sink the green and golds.