Six years after leaving his home city club with the same number of Super League titles to his name, Ryan Hall is relishing the prospect of pulling the Leeds blue and yellow back on and giving his record-breaking rugby league career one last boost.
The 37-year-old earned a permanent place in the affections of the red and white half of Hull during four seasons at Craven Park that coincided with a dramatic Rovers revival, culminating in a fitting – if painful – personal send-off in October’s Super League Grand Final.
If those years forged the kind of bond he could not have envisaged when he came back from a short stint in Australia to sign for the struggling club in 2021, for Leeds-born Hall there is still nothing more special than the prospect of running back out as a home player at Headingley.
Hall, who rose through the Rhinos’ youth ranks and played a key role in the club’s golden era alongside all-time greats like Kevin Sinfield and Rob Burrow, said: “I haven’t pulled the shirt on yet so I don’t know how I’ll feel in that first game, but I’ve got my old spot back in the changing room at the training ground, and the same locker, so I already feel right at home.
“I was expecting to have to fight for it. Going back 19 years when I first walked into the training ground, I put my bag down and unbeknown to me it was Keith Senior’s spot, and that got thrown out of the way and he said, ‘you’re not sitting there’.”
Despite being left “absolutely gutted” by Rovers’ Old Trafford defeat to Wigan in his final game for the club, it gave Hall the opportunity to bid farewell on the biggest stage after four resurgent years in East Yorkshire.
Having arrived in the wake of a Covid-hit 2020 campaign in which his new club had finished bottom of the standings, Hall would help Rovers reach a Challenge Cup final at Wembley and a first appearance in the season finale, as well as eclipsing former Leeds team-mate Danny McGuire as Super League’s leading try scorer.
“I was absolutely gutted to leave Hull KR without a trophy, especially in the last two years when it was well within our capabilities,” added Hall.
“We’d played in two finals and it was really heartbreaking not to come away with some silverware. But if you look at the four-year journey when I was there, I’m immensely proud of where the club was taken to.
“When I signed it was the back end of Covid and I was thinking, I’ve got my work cut out here. But that’s what I’m immensely proud of what happened over these last four years. Rovers are now regarded as being in the top echelon of clubs and they’ll be our big rivals this year.”
Scoring a try as a winger is a product of playing in a good team. Half my tries, I've picked the ball up and put it down. I've not done anything in particular. Maybe it's something I'll be proud of when I retire, but for now I just want the team to win
A revival of similar proportions is required at Leeds under Brad Arthur, as the Rhinos head into the 2025 campaign smarting from two straight years without a post-season berth, and a repeat of his glittering first period at Headingley remains a distant prospect.
But that desire to help resurrect the Rhinos’ glory days still burns fiercely inside Hall, who has signed an initial one-year contract but clearly has every intention of sticking around for longer before easing into an unspecified, off-field role at Headingley.
Shrugging off talk of extending his try-scoring record, Hall, an unassuming figure whose social media interaction mainly comprises YouTube clips of him completing a Rubik’s Cube in 60 seconds, said: “If I was in an individual sport like tennis, I’d go for the individual record, but when it comes to try scoring I’m just not bothered.
“Scoring a try as a winger is a product of playing in a good team. Half my tries, I’ve picked the ball up and put it down. I’ve not done anything in particular. Maybe it’s something I’ll be proud of when I retire, but for now I just want the team to win.”
With his old spot at the Kirkstall training ground secured and his 19th competitive season approaching, Hall added: “At the moment I’ve got an option for a second year but it depends how I feel and how the club feels. In reality, this is year 19 and what sort of mental person finishes on 19?
“I’m aiming to stay as long as possible but I don’t want to drag it out. I don’t want to be clinging on when I’m not wanted.
“If the club say my race is run, I’ll listen to that. But so long as they want me and I feel like I can offer something, I’ll be there.”
