Brian McDermott confident Toronto can perform in Sonny Bill Williams’ absence

Toronto coach Brian McDermott is confident his side can come away from Wigan with their first Super League win – even without star man Sonny Bill Williams.

The Wolfpack have lost back-to-back games for the first time in their history, having gone down to defeats against Castleford and Salford in their maiden season in Super League.

Toronto face a trip to Wigan on Thursday night, but they will be without Williams, who has flown back to his native New Zealand for the birth of his fourth child.

McDermott said: “After all the headlines that we created, it was going to be the case that, should we lose a game, that there would be a load of negativity.

“But we’re all good. Even against Castleford, when we were way off and it wasn’t the best game ever, we had some moments and showed some real positive signs in terms of energy.

“In round two against Salford I thought we played some fantastic stuff – it was a really encouraging performance.

“We had about three blips in concentrations – and they were huge, ugly blips – but we will learn from those. Let’s hope we don’t see too many of them.

“That game was there for the winning so let’s hope there’s another improvement at Wigan because there will need to be.

“Wigan, the same as Leeds, there’s so much expected of them but we should go there with a bit of confidence.”

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