Before returning to Leeds for a final hurrah, Ryan Hall has a job to finish with high-flying Hull KR.
“FROM the first day I walked in, it’s all changed. We don’t have the same badge. We’re still Hull KR, we still play at Craven Park but even that’s being redeveloped as we speak! It’s gone on a very upward trend.”
Ryan Hall is speaking about his time in East Hull as his fourth and final season at the club begins to drive towards its conclusion.
When Hall arrived at Hull KR ahead of the 2021 season, after two difficult years in the NRL with Sydney Roosters, the club had just finished bottom of the eleven teams which finished the ‘Covid season’ of 2020.
That followed a close brush with relegation in 2019, and coach Tony Smith – who gave Hall his Leeds debut way back in 2007 – was struggling to elevate the club beyond its typical standing at the wrong end of Super League.
But the arrival of Hall, plus the form of other experienced heads like Shaun Kenny-Dowall and Kane Linnett, and the direction of halfback Jordan Abdull, helped them finish that season in the top six for the first time since 2009 and reach a first play-off semi-final.
While things went sour for Smith the following year, Willie Peters has picked up the baton and run with it, leading them to a Challenge Cup Final and another play-off semi in 2023, with a repeat of that top-four finish currently on the cards in this campaign as well.
The rebranding, redevelopment and fresh investment off the field has closely mirrored Hull KR’s growth on the field, into a team that now has serious and genuine trophy ambitions.
Alas, they have not got there yet – they lost to Leigh at Wembley last year in golden-point extra time and were thrashed by Wigan in both the play-off semis and then the last four of the Challenge Cup this season.
But with high-class players like Mikey Lewis and Tyrone May pulling the strings, the sky appears the limit, and their aspirations are very much in tune with Hall, a serial winner who won six Grand Finals, two Challenge Cups and the World Club Challenge in his career with past – and future – club Leeds.
Hall has decided to finish his career back where it began, with the Rhinos, but not before one final tilt with Hull KR and one simple ambition: to be “champions”.
He says: “That’s what we’re aiming for. I’m not going to say ‘yeah, we’re going to do it’ and all that sort of stuff, but surely it’s what we play for.
“You don’t play to come in the middle of the table, you play to win. It’s been my philosophy since I walked through the doors at Headingley in 2006 – you play to win.”
Hall is speaking after a win over Leeds at that very ground which moved Hull KR up to joint-second in Super League, just two points off the leaders.
“We’re really proud,” he says of how the year is going. “We’re in it now, and all we’re focusing on is next week, then the next week, then the next week.”
They’ve found consistency this year more than ever, winning 13 of their first 18 matches. While they only found top form at the very end of last season, this time around they’ve been among the leading sides from the start.
“You can talk about peaking but you’ve got to be good throughout the year to be up there, and I think we’ve been there,” he says.
“We’ve still got growth in us, and we’re working towards that. It’s being clinical and ruthless.
“I’ll use Wigan as an example – last year we beat them in the semi-final of the Challenge Cup. They then nailed down and became clinical and ruthless in how they played.
“They didn’t chance anything, they had a very methodical game plan, and they got the job done.
“Taking lessons from that, we’ve got to do the same and have the same growth trajectory. Being clinical, working hard, not leaving stuff to chance.
“It’s not the expansive plays that get you it, it’s the consistent teams under pressure.”
Hall should know, having been part of some exceptional Leeds sides – ‘golden generation’ and all – that swept all before them.
Even accounting for the emotional pull of Headingley, it was a great surprise in April when the Rhinos announced that Hall would be returning to the club in 2025, but it’s a reflection of his performances that a player who turns 37 this November is still so sought after.
As well as the continued try-scoring exploits that recently took him past former team-mate Danny McGuire as Super League’s all-time leader, only Matt Dufty has made more metres in this season’s competition than Hall at the time of writing, and he’s in the top four for tackle busts.
So Leeds aren’t getting your typical veteran for what was initially described by Hall as “my final year”. Now he says “maybe two, if my legs hold up”, and regardless he will still be around in an off-field capacity, be it in the backroom or coaching, when his playing boots are finally hung up.
Lots still to look forward to then for one of the finest players of the Super League era, with unfinished business at Leeds but first the final chapter to write in his Hull KR tale.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 499 (August 2024)
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