Toronto Wolfpack host Featherstone Rovers in Saturday night's Championship Grand Final where not only a place in Super League is at stake, but perhaps also the soul and direction of the sport itself.

Toronto, the first professional transatlantic sports club, have visions of playing against teams from Barcelona and New York in the coming years and competing with traditional powerhouses such as St Helens and Wigan for major silverware.

But first they must negotiate a way past a part-time team from a former pit village in deepest, darkest West Yorkshire.

Toronto reaching the promised land would encourage hopes of expansion of a kind not seen since Super League was formed in 1996.

“The competition is relatively still the same format with the same amount of money and resources and with the same if not less profile than when it started 23 years ago,” says Toronto head coach Brian McDermott, the most successful coach in Super League history with four Grand Final wins at Leeds.

“Look at football, rugby union and cricket in 1996 and the investment, ownership and facilities in these sports since then and then compare them to rugby league now. If the sport is being played with the same names in 10 years' time, then it has regressed.