Super League side possibly set to sign star winger with veteran’s future up in the air

The 2024 Super League season might not have started but recruitment plans for 2025 have already started, as revealed by Hull KR head coach Willie Peters who has a winger on his wishlist.

Currently, the Robins have three senior wingers including Louis Senior, signing Joe Burgess and Super League legend Ryan Hall, whilst recruit Niall Evalds can also operate on the wing.

Of those players, only Evalds, who is primarily a full-back, is signed beyond the 2024 season which means that Hull KR will be facing a dilemma at some stage in terms of both recruitment and retention.

The process of recruitment is something that is already underway and in the minds of the higher-ups at Craven Park with Willie Peters even revealing that talk of 2026 has already begun.

He revealed:  “You’re always looking at recruitment. You’re always discussing it. It’s evolving. You talk about 26. So the answer is yes, you’re always discussing recruitment.”

One man that will be the target of recruitment across all of Super League is Catalans Dragons winger Tom Davies, someone that Hull KR will look at per Peters.

“Well at this stage we need to wait and see what happens with his situation with Catalans. So that’ll be one that we’ll look at mid-year if he’s still available,” Peters explained at his press conference on Thursday.

“He wants to play until he’s 50” – Ryan Hall will have ‘every opportunity’ to play for Hull KR in 2025

The crux of the matter at Hull KR in the winger spots is what will happen with Ryan Hall beyond this season with the 36-year-old being pivotal in his three seasons at Craven Park.

Hall is one of the oldest players in Super League, particularly so on the wing with many of the competition’s elder statesmen serving as forwards.

Following Jermaine McGillvary’s departure from Huddersfield Giants it leaves Ryan Hall as the oldest winger in Super League by over a year, and with that comes a key decision.

Hall penned a new deal with Hull KR in March, confirming his stay at Craven Park until the end of the 2024 season but that now begs the question of whether the powerful winger will go around again in 2025.

Addressing the Tom Davies talk, Peters revealed that Hall would be the key factor and he assured that the 240-try Super League icon will have every chance to play on.

Peters said: “I think Tom’s a very good player but we need to wait and see what happens with Ryan Hall. Hally’s going to have every opportunity to prove himself and if he wants to go again the year after and he’s still doing the same thing, then Hally will be playing the year after. So we need to see how that unfolds.

“He wants to play until his 50. He’s a special human. The way that he approaches the game and how professional he is and how much he knows his body, you can never put a limit on him.”

He might be 36 but for Peters that doesn’t matter, the Australian adding: “At the moment, I don’t even look at the age or what his number is because I’m just looking at his actions and there’s nothing to me saying that he’s slowing down at this stage.

“As I said, that may change with a full season again, but it’d be one of those where I’d like to think that, and respectfully for him, that he can come to me and say, look, my time’s up, or look, I’m willing to go again, I want to go again, and these are the reasons why, this is the evidence.”

How Ryan Hall has become a Super League legend

Ryan Hall’s three seasons at Hull KR have been brilliant and ultimately they’ve been incredibly consistent, something that Willie Peters has underlined as one of the key metrics for a winning team.

In each of Hall’s Super League campaigns with the Robins, he has scored either 14 or 15 tries, putting himself among the best in the competition and in line with a shot at breaking the all-time try-scoring record.

Hall is just seven tries back from Danny McGuire’s incredible tally of 247 and should he continue the consistency he has shown with Hull KR, it would seem that the record is set to be broken.

At that point with the try-scoring record, six Super League titles, two Challenge Cups and four Dream Team appearances, it could be time to hang the boots up especially considering Hall turns 37 in November.

As stated by Peters it will be down to the winger himself but as yet he’s shown no sign of slowing down his production, even if he doesn’t have the speed he used to have which was seen last season when he was caught from behind on a breakaway run, something he joked about himself.

“Ryan Hall isn’t as fast as he used to be”
“He’d have scored that 10 years ago”
😂 pic.twitter.com/8ANnyU2bKy

— Ryan Hall (@Ryan5Hall) September 29, 2023