After trailing by two points at the break the Wolfpack, which contains Gerringong’s Ashton Sims and Culburra Beach’s Jack Buchanan, paired their exceptional defence throughout with a controlled and clinical attacking display in the second half to wear down the West Yorkshire outfit – notching up 16 unanswered points to subject Halifax to their second loss in three games, and keep pace with London Broncos as the early pace setters.

Despite having Josh McCrone sin binned midway through the second half, the Wolfpack’s resilience never buckled and they controlled every aspect after the break to seal an important victory so early in the season.

The Wolfpack were boosted by the return of Joe Westerman from injury and the debut of vice-captain Ashton Sims, who was impressive in his first outing for the club, leading by example and playing long minutes in the middle in a display where Toronto really stood up to Halifax’s big forward pack.

Wolfpack Head Coach Paul Rowley was understandably delighted with his players’ efforts in such a high quality encounter, but admitted there were still things to work on.

“I thought it was a really good display from both sides, it was a great game for the neutral,” Rowley said.

“Halifax defended their try line really well but then again so did we.

“We showed some real desperation and honesty in defence.

“I’m very happy with our resolve.

“Knowing this was going to be like a top four game it was a huge fixture for us.

“We’re not getting carried away, there are areas that we need to improve and we’ll have to go away and keep working because this is such a tough league and it’s all to play for.

“We had some good game management at key times.

“Being away from home we struggle to win the penalty count but when we went down to twelve men we managed it very well.”

Rowley praised debutant Ashton Sims as the big Fijian international played a vital part in securing the win. 

“It was a huge tick in the box to get Ashton out there,” Rowley said.

“It’s not the 60 metre runs you’ll see from him it’s the leadership and enthusiasm that he brings to a team and the longer he was on the field the better it was for us, and I thought it was a really satisfying debut for him.”

An early Wolfpack error gave Halifax the first opportunity to post points and they went so close to doing so.

James Clare, on dual registration from Castleford, plucked Scott Murrell’s high kick out of the air and lunged for the line only for his effort to be ruled out for a double movement.

The Wolfpack saw themselves under enormous pressure again soon after.

Steve Tyrer charged Quentin Laulu-Togaga’e’s kick down but the fullback did just enough to stop the centre and Halifax made an error two plays later to let the visitors off the hook.

Both sides produced errors in possession in a tense opening quarter.

Neither team were able to produce the killer play to open the scoring as both defences held up resolutely.

Back to back errors inside their own half from Halifax gave Toronto prime field position but the host’s defence repelled them again.

As half time approached Halifax almost broke the deadlock through Ed Barber, who pounced on a Laulu-Togaga’e error from a kick but the centre’s effort was again ruled out for offside in the build up.

It took over half an hour for the opening score and it went to the Wolfpack.

After man of the match Greg Worthington showed great strength to put Clare into touch close to his own line, the resulting scrum saw the rangy centre make light work of the Fax defence to touch down on the right to give Toronto the lead.

Halifax came straight back on the attack but terrific scramble defence from Nick Rawsthorne and Liam Kay denied Barber a second time.

Poor discipline from the away side kept Halifax at the right end of the field and with only a minute to go before the break Chester Butler swooped on a perfectly weighted James Woodburn-Hall kick to score next to the posts and Tyrer converted to give the hosts a slender half time lead.

Rawsthorne had a busy opening few minutes after the resumption.

After almost setting up Richard Whiting to score on the previous set the young centre had just enough pace to score from long range on the left following a neat Whiting break and interchange of passing with Kay to put the Wolfpack ahead.

Toronto skipper McCrone found himself sin binned for his part in a dangerous tackle on James Saltonstall leaving the Wolfpack a man short, but the Canadian’s lifted with and without the ball to deny the home side any advantage.

Brierley slotted over a penalty goal to extend the Wolfpack’s lead to six as the visitors started to turn the screw on their opponents late in the game, and they wrapped things up inside the last ten minutes thanks to a brace from Adam Higson.

The big winger first touched down acrobatically on the right after good work from Laulu-Togaga’e for his first try for the club before latching onto a Brierley kick, on the final play of the game, to see Toronto leave West Yorkshire with two more vital competition points and set up an exciting showdown with London Broncos in the UK’s capital next round.

Wolfpack squad: Quentin Laulu-Togaga’e, Adam Higson, Greg Worthington, Nick Rawsthorne, Liam Kay, Josh McCrone (c), Ryan Brierley, Ashton Sims, Bob Beswick, Jack Buchanan, Andrew Dixon, Richard Whiting, Joe Westerman, Jake Emmitt, Olsi Krasniqi, Adam Sidlow and Andy Ackers.