WE all knew the return to the Championship was going to be tough, but the magnitude of Sunday’s defeat to London Broncos by 56-12 came as a big surprise.

Victory would have been a tall order, but a 44-point deficit by a team predicted by all the pundits to finish in the bottom four is a bit of a concern even at this early stage.

Too many penalties and general mistakes didn’t help. You can get away with indiscipline and umpteen handling errors in League One, but not in this division.

I have watched the highlights on Broncos TV and although Barrow were well in the game at half-time; the second half was a procession of tries dominated by the big powerful Broncos pack, with 18-year-old James Meadows taking the man of the match on the fast artificial surface.

The average age of the Broncos squad is only 25 and this week they bolstered their squad with the signing of another talented youngster on a month’s loan 20-year-old Jordan Johnstone from Widnes Vikings who originates from West Cumbria and had a few games for Whitehaven a couple of seasons ago.

Broncos play at the Trailfinders sports ground; home of Ealing RU and are tenants. I was getting myself ready to listen to full match commentary from my Radio Cumbria colleague Fraser Kay, who at the start of the programme informed us all that unfortunately no-one associated with the Broncos club knew how to operate the radio ISDN connections and therefore would be phoning in on his mobile whenever there was something to report.

That meant the Barrow supporters had to listen to the pre-season friendly derby between Whitehaven and Workington.

The RFL should fine London and investigate fully why this happened as it is totally unacceptable in 2018 and doesn’t do the image of rugby league any favours.

There was only 801 in attendance and that included a bus full from Barrow which is pretty poor for a club that has tried to market the game in the capital without real success for the last 38 years.

Londoners don’t seem to be interested in the 13 a-side code and should chairman David Hughes ever walkaway I fear for their survival.

Tomorrow it’s the home game we have all been waiting for. After two transatlantic trips to Canada last season the Furness public finally get the chance to see Toronto Wolfpack at Craven Park.

The 10/11 Championship favourites arrive in fantastic form after their opening-day defeat of fellow title favourites Leigh Centurions 34-12 in front of a respectable crowd of 5,452.

I have watched the try highlights and after a slow start where they were 12-0 down they dominated the rest of the game with Ryan Brierley and Liam Kay instrumental in the impressive victory.

It was an edgy affair but that was expected with Toronto’s coach Paul Rowley the man who took Leigh into Super League recruiting ten ex-Leigh stars to his powerful squad.

Ex-Warrington new recruit Ashton Sims didn’t play but hopefully he will turn out tomorrow together with marquee signings Joe Westerman, Quentin Laulu Togagae and new NRL import and captain Josh McCrone.

Paul Crarey is hoping for a big improvement and said last week that “We can't repeat mistakes like last-tackle penalties, hands in the ruck, little amateurish penalties.”

Absolutely, and let’s be honest if Barrow show the same indiscipline and are not at the top of their game it could be embarrassing.

However, we need to stay positive; we haven’t been beaten at home for over a year and last season York beat Toronto and our regular sparring partners Keighley Cougars got a 24-all draw; so they are not invincible.

It should be a great occasion with the added bonus of our favourite referee Gareth Hewer being the man with the whistle!

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