Exclusive - ex-Leeds Rhinos star Ryan Hall on NRL comeback with cardboard fans

Plenty has changed in the world, not just rugby league, since the former Leeds Rhinos winger saw his Lions tour ended against New Zealand in Auckland.

After surgery and months of rehabilitation, he finally made his comeback for Sydney Roosters as the back-to-back NRL champions inflicted a record 59-0 defeat on Brisbane Broncos on Thursday.

Of course, in light of coronavirus, it was like nothing the prolific England star had ever experienced before during his trophy-laden career.

Hall, down the pecking order behind regular wingers Daniel Tupou and Brett Morris, was not originally due to play.

However, strict biosecurity protocols put in place to enable the competition to return in the last fortnight meant the 32-year-old was a late call-up to the side.

Speaking exclusively to The Yorkshire Post, Hall recalled: “It was good to be back and in bizarre circumstances as well.

“With the Covid-19 situation, there’s various rules in place where our temperature has to be below a certain amount. I think only on the morning of the game James Tedesco didn’t feel great.

“His temperature was a bit high and we were flying to Brisbane on the day.

“The doc’ wasn’t happy he’d pass all the tests so he got ruled out quite early on in the day. I was 18th man so I ended up playing.”

Australia full-back Tedesco, the reigning Dally M Medal winner as the NRL’s best player, became the first player to be ruled out of a game due to its coronavirus-prevention measures.

Although Roosters ruled him out before travelling, on the way into the stadium on match-day, players, staff and media members like camera operators also have temperature checks with anything above 37.2 degree Celsius warranting more testing.

It is likely to be similar when Super League hopes to restart in August but Hall does not believe players dropping out at the 11th hour will be a regular occurrence.

He said: “I hope not. They are strict the things we have to pass but you don’t have to be super-human to do so; you just have to be normal. I think 99 per cent of the time everyone will be fine.

“He (Tedesco) did say he felt a bit flat on the morning so it wasn’t a bad read on the thermometer; there was something else going on there.

“I don’t know if it will be more common for players to miss games or not but I got the chance to play for the first time since that injury and was happy to take it.”

Importantly, Hall, who scored 231 tries in 328 games for home-town Leeds before moving to Sydney at the end of 2018, also reported no ill-effects on his knee.

Granted, he does not know if he will retain his spot at Canterbury Bulldogs next Sunday with Tedesco expected to be fine.

Brett Morris switched to full-back against Broncos and scored again while Tupou moved into fourth spot in the Roosters all-time scoring list with his 94th try.

Hall – who missed most of last term with a knee injury – conceded: “My mentality is just to be ready for anything and whenever the team needs me I’ll be ready to go. Nothing changes there just because I’ve played one game.”

Meanwhile, he is a fan of the new ‘six-again’ rule that sees the tackle count restarted for ruck infringements rather than a penalty awarded. It is being trialled by the NRL and there have been other one-sided scores with Penrith Panthers beating New Zealand Warriors 26-0 yesterday.

Hall said: “We might be getting some blow-out scores but I like it.

“It helps the flow of the game. It’s not stop-start penalties all the time. It’s good to just get on with it. It keeps the ball in play, speeds the game up in theory and (having played it) it does do. If defences aren’t good enough to keep up, then so be it. It gives the advantage to the better side which makes sense. I’m sure there’ll be games where everyone hates it as you’re on the wrong end of a decision and once you’re in a downward spiral it’s hard to get out of.

“There’ll be one where I think ‘God, I wish this rule would go away!’ But overall I think it’s good and not just playing; watching the games, too, I think it looks great.”

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