SMASHING teams is part of the plan to get the sport noticed in Toronto, though it is pretty tiresome for the seasoned rugby league fan.

That was just one of those fans’ forum opinions – and not from a disgruntled Raiders supporter – following the game that settled any serious argument.

If we did not know it before Saturday, we do now: Toronto Wolfpack will stroll through rugby league’s third division without a scratch on them.

There is never much fun in seeing your team take a good hiding, but having taken up Premier Sports' generous offer of 12 months viewing for £25 subs, I was able to go through the painful experience of watching Barrow’s visit to Canada.

That thorny issue of those missing visas aside, Raiders’ 70-2 defeat in the battle of the top-two confirmed that the game’s bosses got it badly wrong when they put the mega rich, full-time Canadian team, sprinkled with former Super League players and seasoned pros, in the same division as clubs run on a shoestring.

When even Barrow, who are capable of beating everybody else in League One, are no competition for the Wolfpack, what chance is there for the rest?

Toronto are already racking up more than 60 points a game and are just marking time before promotion to the Championship, where they should have started life.

As soon as the RFL knew the sort of money that the Canadians could offer and who was leading the recruiting drive (ex-Bradford, Wigan and Great Britain coach Brian Noble), common sense told them that their place was in the second tier while the “new” cash-strapped player-shortage Bradford should have been relegated to the bottom rung.

An impressive crowd of 7,144 – more than half of the Super League clubs would sell their souls for a gate figure like that – turned up at Lamport on Saturday, but how much longer will they go on paying to see visiting teams given the cannon fodder treatment.

What good will it do the likes of Hemel Stags or South Wales Ironmen – two of the Wolfpack’s next visitors – if they are smashed by 100-plus scores? Even worse, what good will it do the sport?

And while I’m getting personal, I would just like to add that rugby should be played on grass. I have yet to enjoy a single game on one of those multi-lined artificial surfaces where nobody gets muddy.

YOU can be fairly certain that when a governing body like the FA comes up with what is generally welcomed as a good idea, there will always be somebody quick to pour cold water all over it.

It will probably come as no surprise to see that Big Sam was out in front when he heard of the latest attempt to rid football of the scourge of the diver. A panel will view any dodgy incidents after the game and will hand out retrospective justice.

“Absolute rubbish,” was the Allardyce verdict on the news that players caught diving – ie cheating – in an attempt to con the referee will receive a two-match ban.

Sam, it seems, was worried about those poor souls who are wrongly yellow-carded when a referee mistakes a dive for a genuine fall. Simple, that yellow card will be rescinded.

Now, if only the FA could devise a plan to cure 90 per cent of managers of their blind spots over incidents of shirt-pulling, handball and foul tackles committed by their own squeaky-clean players, the world of football would be a better place.

DID you see that John Terry farewell parade in the game against Sunderland?

The ball was kicked out and his team-mates formed a guard to wave him off the field in the 26th minute (his shirt number).

A real cheesy goodbye to the long-serving Chelsea captain and ridiculed in some quarters. But perhaps good old Ian Wright got it right when he said: “I’m glad it didn’t happen to me – I was a Number Eight!”

And so the Premier League season came to a close, leaving Jose Mourinho’s overworked Manchester United players to contest the Europa League final tomorrow before they take a well-earned rest ahead of their money-making pre-season tours to various parts of the globe.