YORK City Knights will be facing a big crowd and a plethora of Super League and top-end Championship stars tonight when they take on big-spending new club Toronto Wolfpack, the first-ever transatlantic rugby team.

Among the line-up that has unsurprisingly swept all before them in League One so far are former Leeds and England prop Ryan Bailey, ex-Hull, Hull KR and Wakefield centre Craig Hall, Samoa full-back Quentin Laulu-Togaga’e and cult hero Fuifui Moimoi, the veteran former Parramatta Eels prop and New Zealand and Tonga international.

Knights fans with keen memories may recall that one of their number, forward Dan Fleming, played one match for York in 2015 while on dual-registration from Castleford Tigers.

Also potentially involved are veteran stars Sean Penkywicz, Richard Whiting, the ex-Hull stalwart, and former Ireland captain Bob Beswick.

It is unclear if any North American-born players will feature in the 17 tonight, but Canadian hooker/half-back Rhys Jacks has played nine times this year and American Ryan Burroughs eight times.

The club also held pre-season trials in five cities across North America - Philadelphia, Tampa, Kingston, Vancouver and Toronto - with three players ultimately earning pro contracts, namely Quinn Ngawati, from Vancouver Island, American Joe Eichner and Jamaica’s Nathan Campbell.

Ngawati and Campbell are yet to play while Eichner has made one substitute appearance.

Those trials were filmed by the reality TV docu-series "Last Tackle - Inside the Toronto Wolfpack".

The club also have TV/internet deals to broadcast all home matches with CBC Sports, GameTV across Canada and on Premier Sports in the UK.

Matches are played at the 9,600-capacity Lamport Stadium in Toronto aka The Den, and the average attendance so far has been eye-opening - heading towards 7,000.

The Rugby Football League first received an application from a Canadian consortium based in Toronto in 2014. The idea was laughed off in many quarters but at a press conference in April 2016 it was announced Toronto Wolfpack would join League One. They had been denied straight entry into Super League.

It was argued it was an attractive market due to Canada having the largest rugby league following outside of Australia, France, New Zealand and the UK.

Rather than travel home and away on alternative weekends, the club play in blocks of four home matches and four away, and cover all expenses of visiting teams.

Knights fans who travelled were also invited to a drinks reception last night by the Wolfpack.

The match kicks off at 7pm local time (midnight BST) and will be televised on Premier Sports, although the broadcast will be delayed to start at 9am our time tomorrow.

Toronto (possible): Laulu-Togaga’e, Pownall, Worthington, Hall, Kay, Beswick, Brierley, Bailey, Penkywicz, Fleming, Laithwaite, Whiting, Bussey. Subs: Moimoi, Burroughs, Crossley, Emmitt.