10 August 2023 , 19:44
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Ryan Hall feels good to go but says he’ll never jeopardise Hull KR’s hopes of Wembley glory by gambling on his fitness.
The veteran England winger has been battling a calf injury ahead of Saturday’s Betfred Challenge Cup final clash against Leigh. He has missed their last three games having pulled out of the warm-up before the Cup semi-final versus Wigan. Hall is in their 21-man squad and hopes to pass the final checks during Friday’s traditional Captain’s Run practice session.
Being such a huge game and occasion, it would be easy to risk things and go for broke. There’s been plenty of players who have done that before, perhaps most famously Hall’s former Leeds team-mate Keith Senior whose decision backfired when forced to limp off early in the 2005 final loss against Hull. But Hall, 35, insisted: “It will be the same mentality as I had against Wigan where if I’m not right, I won’t play.
“It was a big call not to play then but I knew I wasn’t right so the right thing to do was to not play. It’s not about me at all. It’s about the team. And if I’m not 100 percent it lessens our chances of winning so I’ll do the right thing.”
Hall, who won the Lance Todd Trophy after scoring two tries in Leeds’ 2014 Cup final win over Castleford, initially strained his calf against Rhinos on July 14. But he's made excellent progress to leave him feeling positive about making Willie Peters' side. The ex-Sydney Rooster said: “It's all good. I’ve still got to get through training Friday which is obviously low key.
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“But I’ve not to just get through it. I have to feel good, too. I’ve gone from the initial disappointment of being injured to some optimism and looking forward to trying to get better each day. It’s been a race to get right because it did feel good before I tried to play Wigan. I only thought it was a slight strain against Leeds and it’d be nothing. But it went back to square one again during the warm-up and I thought ‘God, it’s worse than when we started.’”
Hull KR's Ryan Hall (James Heaton/News Images)Hall’s inclusion would greatly bolster KR’s chances of winning the Cup for the first time since 1980 - and banishing memories of their last Wembley appearance in 2015 when his Leeds side inflicted a record 50-0 defeat. Fellow winger Tom Briscoe scored five tries that day but is in the Leigh side directly up against Hall on Saturday. He said: “Because rugby league's a pretty small community you get to play against ex-teammates regularly so facing Tom is just part of the sport. But it is interesting when you take on your mates: you know what they’re going to do and they know what you’re going to do.
"Everything went right for us that day, especially for Tom with his five tries. It’s hard to see that ever being beaten. The team performance was near perfect. I’ve got great memories of that day. Tom has, Danny McGuire has and so has Brett Delaney who’s also on our coaching staff. We maybe need to draw on that a little bit; experienced players with experience would be silly not to share experiences at times.
"There’s a couple of stories on Saturday with Zak (Hardaker) who’s in there after winning it with Leeds twice, then Josh Charnley who did it Wigan and Warrington. There'll be quite a few first-time winners and losers. We know we’ll have to be good to beat Leigh. They’ve beaten us twice already this season. But they haven’t seen our best version yet.”