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Something has to give Saturday when the Toronto Wolfpack play the Leigh Centurions.

The Wolfpack have won 10 straight in England’s second-tier Betfred Championship, topping the table at 12-1-1. The Centurions, after a 1-4-0 start to the season that saw coach Neil Jukes step down, have won 11 in a row in league and cup play. At 9-4-0, Leigh is fifth in the standings.

Adding spice to the matchup is the fact that the Wolfpack, rugby league’s first transatlantic team, opened the season with a 34-12 win at Leigh. And Toronto coach Paul Rowley, who played and coached at Leigh, has stocked his roster with ex-Centurions.

Former Leigh players now wearing Wolfpack colours include Bob Beswick, Ryan Brierley, Andrew Dixon, Jake Emmitt, Adam Higson, Sam Hopkins, Liam Kay, James Laithwaite, Cory Paterson, Jonny Pownall, Nick Rawsthorne, Richard Whiting and Greg Worthington.

Wolfpack players going the other way to Leigh include former captain Craig Hall and Ryan Bailey, who was cut earlier this year after a training camp transgression.

Leigh was relegated from the top-tier Super League after last season, while Toronto, in its inaugural year was promoted to the Championship after winning the third-tier League 1.

Rowley was not too keen about some of the chatter out of the Leigh camp prior to their Feb. 4 meeting.

“I think this day couldn’t come soon enough because of the way we dismantled them in that first game after they talked so much,” he said. “But we did our talking on the pitch that day.”

Leigh, which took the interim tag away from coach Kieron Purtill this week, turned heads earlier this month when it upset Super League side Salford 22-10 in the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup.

“They’re the form team of the Championship, that’s for sure,” Rowley said.

Toronto bounced back from an embarrassing 66-10 Challenge Cup loss to Warrington by defeating second-place Toulouse 43-30 last weekend in a game that saw the French side score two late tries to make the score more respectable.

The Wolfpack will be without Higson (collarbone) and Darcy Lussick (shoulder) with Chase Stanley (hamstring) questionable. Both Lussick and Stanley should be ready for Toronto’s next game June 9 against the London Broncos – the first of eight straight home contests as the Wolfpack return to the newly renovated Lamport Stadium.

Saturday’s game against Leigh is in Blackpool as part of “Summer Bash” that sees six Championship fixtures over two days at Bloomfield Road, home of the Blackpool FC soccer club.

Last week’s Toronto-Toulouse game at Newcastle’s St. James Park was the lone Championship fixture in the so-called Magic Weekend, the Super League version of Summer Bash.

That game did not feature the normal video review system, with Toronto scoring two questionable tries – Kay failed to touch the ball down on one score with another seemingly coming off a forward pass.

Rowley, meanwhile, saw two Toulouse tries that should have been called back.

Summer Bash is serving as a trial of a stripped-down video referee system that will see just three areas go to video review: grounding of the ball, if the player is in touch/touch in goal or if the dead ball line is in play. The idea is to reduce the time video reviews take.

Rowley doesn’t like it.

“It’s quite simple for me. If you’ve got a video to make right decisions, then make the right decisions. So now we’re saying even if it’s a wrong decision we’re not using it. So does that improve the game or not? I say not. If it takes a minute longer to get something correct, then get it correct … If there’s technology there, then use it.”

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