TORONTO

Toronto Wolfpack joins third tier English rugby league in 2017

The Canadian Press Published Wednesday, April 27, 2016 2:19PM EDT

Eric Perez, the founder and CEO of the Toronto Wolfpack (left), Wolfpack head coach Paul Rowley and Toronto Mayor John Tory hold up jerseys of the new rugby league team in Toronto, Wednesday, April 27, 2016. The team will commence play in March 2017 in the Kingstone Press League 1, the third tier of English rughby league. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Neil Davidson)

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Toronto's newest team is the Toronto Wolfpack, which plans to play in the third tier of English rugby league come 2017.

The owners are billing it as the first transatlantic professional sports team.

In fact, the Wolfpack will be based in England for the most part, playing home games in three-week chunks at Toronto's Lamport Stadium.

The new team will be the 16th in the third-tier Kingstone Press League 1, which has 12 teams from England, two from Wales and one from France.

While the Toronto team will largely draw on experienced rugby league talent from abroad, it expects to have local players on the roster.

Rugby league is rugby's lesser-know 13-man code, as opposed to the 15-man rugby union version of the game. It is popular primarily in England and Australia.