‘World’s Best Winger’ Ryan Hall is our YEP Jury’s favourite Leeds Rhinos wingman

DIANNE HALL This week’s task is to pick our favourite Leeds winger. Whilst we have had many exciting wingers, Scott Donald, Mark Calderwood, Leroy Rivett and Tom Briscoe, you’d have to go a long way to find a better winger than “our” Ryan Hall. He joined us in 2007 aged 20 and played his entire Super League career with us, making a total of 282 appearances. Although sometimes a bit suspect under the high ball, when he caught one and set off down the wing, he was a sight to behold. Due to his size he took some stopping and I’m sure that if he had stayed with us then he would have made the progression into the pack. Out of all of his 197 tries I am sure like me most Leeds Rhinos fans would pick that try at Huddersfield Giants as their favourite. It still gives me goose-bumps watching it back! Off the field he could do the Rubik’s cube in 80 seconds, play a mean piano and was a bit of a train spotter. He apparently took train numbers down if he could during training at Kirkstall. CHRISTINE KIDD My top two Leeds wingers would have to be Scott Donald and Ryan Hall. Scott Donald came to Leeds in 2006 and scored 93 tries in 145 appearances for the Rhinos. He was part of the team that won three consecutive Grand Finals. He had speed to burn and scored a try in the 2007 Grand Final against St Helens. Ryan Hall made his debut for the Rhinos in 2007 and scored 231 tries during his 11 years at Leeds. He was a very powerful winger who could take the ball up the middle but was fast enough to score tries on the wing when needed. The most memorable of these tries was against Huddersfield Giants in 2015 during the Rhinos last game of the season. That try meant that Leeds still had a chance of doing the treble having already won the Challenge Cup. During his successful time at Leeds Rhinos, Ryan won six Grand Finals, two Challenge Cups, two League Leaders’ Shields and two World Club Challenges. GRAHAM POULTER Hi everyone, I hope that you’re all keeping safe and obeying orders to stay at home. The team that we are building I reckon will be completed sooner rather than later with the way things are panning out, so this week we have been tasked with selecting our top two wingers. The obvious choice for number one winger goes to Ryan Hall for me, he scored lots of sensational tries over his Leeds career, but the one that stands out was the try he scored at Huddersfield in 2015 that secured Leeds the League Leaders’ Shield. That moment still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It was an unbelievable part of Leeds Rhinos’ and sporting history in general. You just couldn’t have scripted a better ending. And my second best winger just has to go to Marcus Bai. He was as good defensively as he was at scoring lots of wonderful tries. It’s a shame that he didn’t play for Leeds a lot longer than he did, he was a sensational player! ADAM ANDERSON So, this week we are looking at the best wingers that we’ve seen in Leeds Rhinos colours. I have chosen Ryan Hall and Scott Donald. Ryan Hall could score a try from anywhere and seemingly made metres like a forward would. Starting in 2007 when he played against Bradford Bulls at the Magic Weekend in Cardiff, we knew that this kid was going to be something really special. His stats say it all, he scored a try every other game in his time at Leeds Rhinos, although he hasn’t had much of a chance to make his mark in the NRL so far. Scott Donald came to Leeds Rhinos at the back end of 2005 and didn’t start off very well, but he showed us what he was made of by the end of his five years at the club, notably the Grand Final against St Helens in 2007 where he put Paul Wellens on the ground with the step over on the way to scoring his try. I hope that everyone is keeping well during these traumatic times and fingers crossed we get rugby league back as soon as possible. IAN SHARP On to our favourite wingers this week and we have had a fair few good ones over the years at Leeds Rhinos that I’ve been lucky enough to see play live. Now after his defection to Bradford Bulls in 2006 I did consider not picking this player, but his speed and ability to score hat-tricks I still had to pick Marcus Bai. What a debut he made scoring a hat-trick at home, a great player, and not many have won both NRL and Super League titles, he had two great seasons at Leeds, before moving to the dark side! In our recent history there can only be one other winger to pick and it has to be Ryan Hall. Here we have a winger in the body of a second-row, his catching, and ability to make metres after contact made him one of the most dangerous wingers. So much so he is known as ‘World’s Best Winger’. His outstanding length of the field try in the World Club Challenge at Headingley against Manly is one I will always remember, and he then topped that in 2015 at Huddersfield Giants! MATT FOWLER Watching Leeds through a golden period means there are plenty of great players to choose from when picking your favourites. This week it is wingers and I have two out of the same mould but with very different trophy cabinets. First pick is someone with no trophies to his name but he created some fantastic memories and was probably before his time as a real bludgeoning winger that we now see dominate in Super League, built like a forward but with speed to burn. Jim Fallon was a revelation in the Leeds team of the mid-90s. With his flowing hair he was a fans’ favourite almost instantly causing havoc down the South Stand side and he would have fitted into any of the great Rhinos teams. My second pick is Ryan Hall. Not called the ‘World’s Best Winger’ for nothing. An academy product who won everything in the domestic game and has an international try scoring record that is phenomenal. Similar in many ways to Fallon but Ryan had the opportunity to show his skills on the biggest stage. His performance in the 2014 Challenge Cup epitomised his power game and big game mentality. Both greats in my eyes. **** A message from the Editor: Thank you for reading this story on our website. These are challenging times but the team at the Yorkshire Evening Post need your support more than ever in the weeks ahead. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you. In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you - wherever possible and providing it is safe for you to do so - to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper. Inevitably falling advertising revenues will start to have an impact on local newspapers and the way we continue to work during this period of uncertainty. So the support of our readers has never been more important as we try to make sure that we keep you connected with the city you live in during this time. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. We need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis. Our team of trusted reporters are working incredibly hard behind the scenes- from kitchen tables and spare bedrooms - to look at how we can do this and your continued support to the YEP will help to protect its viability in the days and weeks ahead. For more details on our subscription offers please visit www.localsubsplus.co.uk/YEP, email subscriptions@jpimedia.co.uk or call us on 0330 4033004 Thank you Laura Collins Editor

‘World’s Best Winger’ Ryan Hall is our YEP Jury’s favourite Leeds Rhinos wingman – but who ran him close?