Willie Peters hopeful of Ryan Hall return to give Wembley boost

Ryan Hall is one of Super League’s greatest ever wingers and he’s currently chasing down the try-scoring record held by current Rovers coach and former Leeds Rhinos teammate Danny McGuire.

Hall sits on 235 tries, just 12 short of the record held by McGuire at 247 and whilst he’s closing in on that tally, he won’t be able to add to it over the next two weeks.

That’s because head coach Willie Peters has confirmed the powerful winger will miss the next two Super League games but has is hopeful of being able to return for another date at Wembley.

The last time the Robins visited Wembley was in 2015 and Hall was on the opposing side representing Leeds Rhinos, with the Rhinos running out as huge 50-0 winners and crushing Rovers’ dreams.

Somehow Hall didn’t find his way onto the scoresheet that day, in part because the Rhinos utilised his opposite winger with Tom Briscoe picking up a Challenge Cup Final five tries in the match.

The ex England international Hall will be desperate to return though and Peters spoke about the likelihood of that today.

“Yeah, so hoping it’ll be only another two weeks, so obviously back for the cup final. That’s the aim, to be able to get him back for that,” Peters explained.

“But it was one that Ryan thought that he’d get through the game last week and then he felt it in the warm-up.

“If any player says that he can’t do his job, it’ll be Ryan because you know that he had a week recovery after an operation. Those operations usually take two and a half to three weeks for most players.

“So if Ryan says that he’s not right, you know he’s not right. So hopefully we need to just work on him now, mate, to get him back for that Cup game.”

That calf injury saw him pull out in the warm-up forcing a reshuffle at the back for Rovers but Peters was quick to applaud the selflessness and awareness of Hall.

“It was very selfless and that’s the person he is. He will always put the team first. He wants to be a part of what we’re doing.

“We had a team meeting this morning and there was no messages that he was talking about from the weekend’s game going into this week and obviously the next couple of weeks. He’s got so much experience, so much knowledge and like you say, it was a selfless act.

“I thought we handled that situation really well as a team led by Shaun Kenny-Dowall as well.”

The only other short-term absentee is Dean Hadley who Peters confirmed would be another week on the advice of a specialist.