MIKE Sunderland believes valuable lessons have been learned after Barrow Raiders were forced to leave behind four players due to visa issues for tonight's game at Toronto Wolfpack.

Martin Aspinwall, Danny Morrow and Dan Toal were unable to obtain visas in time to travel after issues with their applications came to light, while Jamie Dallimore was turned away at check-in for the squad's flight to Canada, after initially being granted a visa.

There is a high probability Raiders will have to return to Toronto during the Super Eights phase of the season, yet chairman Sunderland is confident the club will be able to avoid this situation occurring again if that proves to be the case.

“When we started the visa process, we looked into it before we did it,” said Sunderland. “It takes a day to get a visa and if there are any issues, they come back to you, explain what the issue is and you have to allow the person to put in the paperwork to resolve that.

"Unfortunately, the way the visas went, three of these guys would have taken six to 12 months to get a visa. However, we didn't have that knowledge at the time.

“We've left the visas in place to process for the future, we haven't just given up on the applications. We are working on that and we are still pushing to get the visas in case we need them again.”

Sunderland is grateful for the help of a barrister who works for the Canadian immigration authorities doing all they could to help the club process the applications for Aspinwall, Morrow and Toal as quickly as possible, although ultimately they were unable to get approval for the trio.

The Barrow chief feels the Rugby Football League should be doing more to help both Barrow and the other Kingstone Press League One clubs with their visa applications, although the governing body insisted both they and Toronto had done all they could to provide assistance.

“Toronto Wolfpack undertake all visa applications at their own cost on behalf of visiting clubs through a highly reputable law firm,” said an RFL statement.

“All Kingstone Press League One clubs visiting Canada are provided with support and information from both the Rugby Football League and Toronto clearly explaining what they are required to do in order for players to travel.

“We work hard to ensure that we provide support and advice to clubs at all levels of the game. We do not accept the suggestion that we have provided limited assistance to Barrow Raiders.

“We have provided clear and timely guidance and have been in contact with the club for a number of months answering any questions they have and informing them of what is required in order for players to travel to Canada.

“It is unfortunate that some of this guidance has not been followed and that as a consequence, players have been denied the opportunity to play in what promises to be a great game between the top two sides in the league.”

Sunderland refuted the assertion that Toronto arrange the visas, with Raiders having made the applications for all of their players themselves, and is in no doubt the governing body should be the ones taking responsibility for arranging visas instead.

“I was a little bit disappointed with the support we've got,” said Sunderland. “I've calmed down a lot, but I do think the RFL could do more to help us by taking that away from the League One clubs.

“The League One clubs are under-resourced and under-financed, but then they put this onto us as well. We could have done with more support from the RFL and Toronto themselves – they're out there, they know the visa situation a lot more than we do.

“We were behind the eight-ball from the start, really; we didn't really anticipate the level of documentation required for certain people's visas.”