Leeds Rhinos’ most experienced player is facing a potentially long layoff following Friday’s 20-14 home loss to Hull KR.
Veteran winger Ryan Hall suffered a suspected syndesmosis just 10 minutes into the game and played no further part. Captain Cameron Smith has yet to return from a similar ankle injury sustained against Salford Red Devils in February.
Discussing Hall’s condition in his post-match press conference, coach Brad Arthur admitted: “I don’t think he’s great – he will have to have scans.
“That was pretty disruptive, but Harry Newman went to the wing and did a great job and you can see the value in Kallum Watkins already, because he was unreal in the centres. It would have been nice to keep Hally out there, but that wasn’t an excuse or the reason why [Rhinos lost].”
Captain Ash Handley’s red card inside the final 10 minutes, for shoulder contact to the head of Hull KR full-back Arthur Mourgue, had a greater bearing on the result. The Robins’ Sauaso Sue was dismissed 10 minutes earlier for a similar challenge on Leeds’ Sam Lisone whilst the Rhinos had Jack Sinfield sin-binned in the first half for a high shoulder on Mourgue.
Arthur said: “I think both ours and their red cards could’ve possibly been yellow cards – I don’t know. What I do know is, every club is working hard to make sure players are not hitting blokes in the head.
“We have done so much work on our target area, I don’t know what more I can do as a coach.
“Unfortunately, it’s determining games, changing outcomes and changing the context of games.
“It probably made it a bit exciting for everyone, but it would’ve been nice to have 13 on 13 for the whole 80 minutes. It’s just the way it is.”
Leeds Rhinos boss rues “big moment” red card versus Hull KR
Arthur said the centre was “devastated” after the game and added: “It was a big moment, but there was nothing deliberate from any of the guys, our team or their team. When you are making contact with the head, some of it is hard to avoid.”
Rovers’ first try came when Leeds had 11 men with Sinfield in the sin-bin and Jake Connor having been shown a green card after needing treatment to a dislocated finger.
Reflecting on the game itself, Arthur was ”extremely proud of the performance and effort”, but admitted Rhinos need to learn how to win close matches.
He said: “We showed a fair bit of resilience, a few things went against us, especially early – losing a player and the green card, so we were down to 11 players when they scored.
“I thought we fought back really well and got ourselves into a good, strong position. I think fundamentally the team knows how we want to play and are putting ourselves into positions where we can win every game. Now we’ve got to learn how to close the game out and how we win it with 15 minutes to go.
“It happened a few weeks ago at Warrington, the same thing. We are just not quite at that level yet. That’s my job, now we are putting ourselves in a position to win, teaching them how we win that.”
Arthur felt his team tried to “protect the lead” at 14-6. He added: “What got us into that position, we need to keep doing. We can take plenty out of it, but getting close isn’t good enough. It was the same against Warrington a few weeks ago. That’s two games we should have won.
“We can take plenty out of it, but also getting close isn’t good enough. We will have to learn from it, but the good thing is I like their attitude towards wanting to get better. There were some big moments we got wrong at the back end of the game, but that’s not individuals, it’s the whole team.”
FULL TIME
Rhinos 14 – 20 Robins
🤝 In partnership #Anchor #ButtertheFoodButtertheMood pic.twitter.com/q9pJXljBEO— Leeds Rhinos (@leedsrhinos) April 25, 2025
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