Toronto half-back Ryan Brierley excited by promotion challenge

Toronto are bracing themselves for a nerve-wracking end to the season as they look to secure their place in Super League at the first attempt.

The Wolfpack, promoted from League 1 in their first season, finished eight points clear at the top of the Championship this year but must earn promotion to the top flight by either finishing in the top three of the Super 8s Qualifiers or winning the Million Pound Game.

First up for the Canadian club on Sunday, August 12 are Richard Marshall’s Halifax, a part-time team who defied the odds once more to claim a top-four finish.

“We understand how good a team Halifax are. We’re going to be facing a team full of confidence,” Toronto half-back Ryan Brierley said.

“They’ve had a great last couple of months, Richard Marshall has done an unbelievable job there and they deserve to be in the top four.”

Toronto, who earned four home games after finishing in the top two, will play them in two blocks of two.

Toronto received a rude awakening when they relinquished their unbeaten home record last Saturday in losing to Featherstone but Brierley says the Canadian team were already aware of the size of their task.

“We had a lot of disruption in the team last week but fair play to Featherstone, they played like their lives depended on it,” he said.

“We know we need to be a lot better than that and move on. We’ve got to focus on the bigger picture which is what we’ve worked so hard for all year.

“We’ve put ourselves in the best possible position, four home games is good for us, but it by no means makes promotion guaranteed.

“The teams that have managed to get promotion from the middle eights in previous years, Leigh and Hull KR, have performed really well under pressure and that’s what we need to learn from.

“There’s going to be a lot of testing times in these middle eights and I think we’ve got the most difficult tests in terms of the travel.

“Every team is capable of taking points off each other, every team pose a threat. It’s going to be a great spectacle. I think there’s going to be more interest in this than the top end of Super League.

“It’s going to be nerve-wracking for everyone involved but it’s something we’re looking forward to. We had the league leaders wrapped up with three games to spare and it’s nice to play some meaningful games.”

Leeds, who finished in the bottom four for the second time in three years, will begin their campaign against Toulouse at Headingley on Saturday, August 11.

In Super League, table-topping St Helens start the Super 8s at home to form team Huddersfield on Friday, August 10 before travelling to Wakefield six days later, when they could secure the League Leaders’ Shield.