Rowley: No balloons burst for Toronto

James Gordon

Toronto coach Paul Rowley was philosophical after the Wolfpack bounced back from defeat at London to beat Swinton at the weekend.

Rowley’s men ran in eight tries to defeat the Lions at Heywood Road and record their third win of the season.

Their 47-16 loss to London, the young club’s record defeat, had come just a fortnight after a shock 8-8 draw at Barrow.

But Rowley said: “People talking about balloons being burst and stuff like that after last week, but we’re a new club.

“We’re still inflating our balloon, we’re still blowing it up, and it’s not popping just yet.

“We’re in a good place. We’re making no statements. We’re just a new club with an off-field department that wants to celebrate what a wonderful game we represent and that’s about as far as it goes.”

Rowley handed a debut to NRL veteran Reni Maitua as once again their opposing team made a fuss about hosting the new kids on the block.

Rowley added: “I thought they built it up really well. The whole club was buzzing, so we knew we were going to be met with a lot of fire.

“I thought our entrance to the game really quietened it down a bit and took the sting out of their tail.

“I thought we were really consistent, our attention to detail was good, and I thought the boys after last week had a lot of questions asked of them, and they answered them in a really positive fashion.”

Toronto still have another seven away games in the Championship before they play their first game of the season in Canada, against Swinton on May 5.