Anthony Mullally Wins the Million Pound Game as Toronto Wolfpack Reach Super League

Vegan prop Anthony Mullally is heading to Super League. He started for Toronto Wolfpack on Saturday, October 5 as they beat Featherstone Rovers 24-6 in the Million Pound Game, the Championship play-off final that decides promotion.

A full house of 9,974 packed into Lamport Stadium. Featherstone led through an Alex Sutcliffe try, but Josh McCrone, Blake Wallace, Bodene Thompson and Joe Mellor all went over for Toronto, three of those tries coming in a 13-minute spell after the break, the BBC reports. Toronto were only formed in 2016 and lost last year's Million Pound Game 4-2 to London Broncos. This season they won 26 of their 27 league games and finished unbeaten at home.

Mullally stands 6ft 5in and weighs 110kg (243lb). He joined the Wolfpack from Leeds this year, where he co-owns a vegan restaurant, The Vital Cafe, and the club know him as the "Vegan Warrior". He told CBC why he made the switch:

When you look at things like processed red meat, now it's classed as a carcinogenic. The same as smoking and alcohol. When I saw stuff like that I was thinking, well, how's that? I thought meat was good for us. Then you start delving into it and you see the environmental impact that agriculture is having on the planet and the ethical side of things. After I put all these together, I felt personally I couldn't contribute to the industry anymore.

He did it step by step over about two years, dropping red meat, then chicken, then fish. "Each time I cut something out, I realized it wasn't making a difference and if anything, I felt better," he said. On a training day he eats around 5,000 calories: oats with protein powder, flax, chia, peanut butter, berries and banana for breakfast, then quinoa, beans and greens, with a protein shake after training. As he puts it, vegan athletes can still have their protein shake and their creatine like everyone else.

We first wrote about Mullally back in 2017, when the 252lb international rugby player went vegan after watching a YouTube video. Since then he has only got stronger, and last month The Game Changers got its worldwide release, putting plant-powered athletes in front of audiences everywhere. Like vegan heavyweight David Haye, Mullally is proof that the biggest men in contact sport can thrive without meat.

Super League, here comes the Vegan Warrior. No meat, no problem.