HULL star Maha Fonua says National League One newcomers Toronto will bounce straight into Super League for 2019.
The Tongan star, the first locally produced Victorian to represent Melbourne, was also among the first opponents to get a taste of the new expansion team last weekend.
Fonua, 24, scored two tries in the Challenge Cup holders’ narrow 26-20 pre-season win over the Wolfpack at KCOM Stadium in Sunday.
“With all their signings they’ve got there, they’re going to make a hard and fast push to get into the Super League and I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t take them long,” said Fonua.
“They’ll probably do it in consecutive years, straight into it. I heard that they’re trying to get another Canadian team out there so, yeah, I don’t see them playing down in that division very long.”
Fonua’s coach, Lee Radford, agreed. “They should walk through that division – and rightly so,” he said. “I hope they do and I hope they walk through the next one as well and I really do hope that rugby league in Canada can take off.”
As a pioneer of league expansion, Fonua says he strongly support’s the game’s incursions into North America.
“I think it’s really good the game is expanding to make it more international,” he said. “We’ve seen over the last couple of Word Cups that you’ve just got your main, dominant three.
“Rugby union, they’re a big international game. They’ve got teams like Argentina that are in the mix with Australia and New Zealand. Hopefully we can see the smaller (rugby league) nations build up and become stronger teams.
“This is a good start, getting out to Canada and spreading the grass roots.”
