Winless in nine games this season, the South Wales Ironmen can expect a long day at the office Saturday when the league-leading Toronto Wolfpack come to visit.
But South Wales coach Phil Carleton says his semi-pro rugby league band of plasterers, plumbers, golf course groundskeepers and students are looking forward to a "great occasion."
"Anybody who doesn't look forward to it is a bit crazy, really," said Carleton, who manages a gym when not coaching the Ironmen. "It's a surreal environment that those (Toronto) guys are creating in our league. They've got the presence to go and do bigger and better things, we all know that.
"While they're around, they're definitely welcome in South Wales and we're looking forward to hopefully generating some interest in the game down here as much as they are in Canada."
The fully professional Wolfpack (9-0-0) have outscored their opposition 536-85 while steamrolling towards their goal of promotion to the second-tier of English rugby league.
In the modest world of the third-tier Kingstone Press League 1, the Wolfpack are rock stars given their players' pedigree.
"Some of those guys ... you'd be asking for autographs if you saw them away from the game," said Carleton, a former Welsh international.
South Wales (0-9-0) stands 15th in the 16th-place league (on points differential) and has been outscored 399-130 in a season complicated by changes in ownership.
"We're under no illusions," the 33-year-old coach said of what awaits his team at its Wern Sports Park home in Merthyr Tydfil. "The names that Toronto has are household names through the north and south and west of England and the rugby league world. And we don't boast any of that.
"But as players you want to play against the best possible teams you can, the best possible players, so that when we're long in the tooth and retired, we can all say 'That day I did.'"
"We'll be giving it our best, as many of the sides before have obviously tried to too," he added.
The Ironmen, formerly known as the Scorpions, have moved to a strategy of recruiting locally after unsuccessful attempts to import player from rugby league's hotbed in the north of England.
"We're a blend. We've got some experience but we are predominantly a young team and very much in the developmental stages and infancy, if you like," said Carleton.
A lot of that experience comes from 36-year-old captain Christiaan Roets, South African-born but Welsh by heritage.
The only full-time player is Andy Gay, an Australian-born Welsh international on loan from Australia's Mackay Cutters.
The Wolfpack are coming off a pair of lopsided wins in Toronto, 70-2 over Barrow and 54-12 over Coventry. South Wales was thumped 74-6 by the sixth-place Keighley Cougars last time out.
Toronto's injury list is growing. The Wolfpack will be without Jack Bussey, Liam Kay, James Laithwaite, Adam Sidlow, Blake Wallace and Gary Wheeler while Quentin Laulu-Togaga'e is said to be 50-50. Jake Emmitt returns from suspension.
It's been a rainy week in Wales and Carleton hopes the conditions will improve to help drive up Saturday's attendance.
"It's a big occasion," he said. "We don't often get the names of Fuifui Moimoi and Ryan Bailey down in the Wern Park."
With rugby league "very much the poorer cousin" to rugby union in Wales, Carleton says Toronto's visit is a chance to showcase the 13-man code.
There is progress. Wales won the 2105 European Cup, which also featured the rugby league teams of Scotland, France and Ireland. Toronto's Dan Fleming was on the winning Welsh team, as were current Ironmen Roets and Connor Farrer.
And South Wales has sent the likes of Ben Flower, Elliot Kear and Lloyd White to Super League teams.
But off-field issues and some personnel changes have made life difficult for the Ironmen in recent weeks.
"We're hoping to get back on track. This probably isn't the best weekend to start that," Carleton said dryly.
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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
