Meet the Toronto Wolfpack - the rugby league team that'll play half their season in Canada and the other half in England Meet the Toronto Wolfpack - the rugby league team that'll play half their season in Canada and the other half in England

Picture the scene. A group of men in New Zealand decide to go on a rugby tour to Australia, Wales and England. They have very little money and will be away for a long time.

They're not sure if they will generate much interest or if anyone will turn up to watch them. It is 1907 and the other side of the world is a long way away.

By the end of the tour, the game of rugby league has become established, the tour itself was profitable and several of the players were given generous payments to stay and play for teams in the north of England. It needed the vision and entrepreneurial skills of a man called Albert Baskerville to pull this off. It must have seemed like a daunting task but he felt passionately about it and took a chance. Where would we be without people like him?

I can see several similarities with the news on Wednesday that a team from Toronto will enter the Kingstone Press League 1 for next season. It is the result of the drive by a man called Eric Perez, the modern day Mr Baskerville. He has chosen a city that is just over seven hours flight from the England, and with an incredible appetite for sport.

This could be a strength or a weakness as the market could be saturated already. It has a hockey team, a basketball team, a baseball team, a soccer team and a Canadian football side. Add that to the fact that rugby union, lacrosse, frisbee and tennis are already played there means that the people either have enough sports to choose from already or just cannot get enough. It is sports mad.

Toronto: Home of the new rugby league team the Toronto Wolfpack

In fact, Toronto loves sport that much that it bid for the Olympics in 2008 and came runner-up to Beijing. The city is the commercial capital of Canada with a population similar to that of Leeds or Manchester. The fact that it is based on the shores of Lake Ontario make it look a bit like Sydney or Auckland, so can it become a place where rugby league takes root?

Well in some ways we need it to. The Canterbury and England forward, James Graham, made comments in Australia recently which implied that rugby league needs to grow its international footprint or the sport would just become a feeder competition to rugby union. I am not sure if that horse has already bolted James, but I understand your point. Staying still is not an option.

Here is my summation of the rugby league game in the UK over the last 40 years:

We have professional clubs which have existed for around a century which now have no assets and live from week to week. They just about survive but are in a professional sporting sense on a "life-support machine", and have been for the last decade.

They are going nowhere and haven't been well-managed in the past. We have some clubs which have moved into the 21st Century and are well run, hoping that the others will improve and allow the sport to grow as well. These have been in the minority in my opinion. The weak have held back the strong.

They will provide players and fans the opportunity to enjoy the sport in a new environment and they are going to encourage local Canadians to play the game. Phil Clarke

From time to time we get some enthusiastic people from outside traditional rugby league lands who show an interest in the sport. However, we have not been great at helping the good ones and weeding out the bad. It strikes me that the people behind this Toronto project need backing, just as the ones in Toulouse do as well.

The world is a much smaller place than it was when rugby league first started and I hope it goes from strength to strength in Toronto. We have got to hope that Mr Perez does not get pneumonia, like Mr Baskerville did. We need him.

Critics could argue that we have not got rugby league going in Liverpool so why do we think we can get a transatlantic team to succeed? Well I would reply by saying that this is a self-funded operation that is not taking money from the existing game. They are going to increase the awareness of the sport in a new area. They will provide players and fans the opportunity to enjoy the sport in a new environment and they are going to encourage local Canadians to play the game.

Rugby league has over 100 years' experience at trying to establish itself in new areas - some good, more bad, but I have nothing but admiration and enthusiasm for the project. I'll be following the Canadian Wolfpack with interest.