OK so we all know that he has been fantastic in the past and can certainly push people around through sheer physical strength

HOWEVER

I wonder if he has bulked up too much. He doesn't seem to be as effective as a winger anymore and I think he has been poor in defence over a number of games now.

I am still a relative new boy to RL so wonder if I was missing anything?

He's never been a good tackler. All arms out grabbing style. It's why when one or two people said a few years back on here he should be moved to centre I said no because defensively he couldn't manage it.

In attack nothing has really changed. We use him as an extra forward to cart the ball away and he sees very little of it near the opposition line, was never the fastest winger even when younger. What he did do a couple of years ago was score a few tries off cross field kicks from Sinfield but we seemed to stop trying that the last year or two.

I the game has changed in recent years, where as traditionally teams got the ball out to their wingers and they scored an abundance of tries if they had a decent centre inside them e.g. Ryan Hall and Keith Senior and Scott Donald outside Keith before him, gee the squad at the time even made Francis Cummings look good.

Now a lot of Leeds' tries can come from anywhere in the park from a break from any of our halves and more recently with a stronger pack we are even scoring tries when camped on the opposition line (at long last)

Overall the role of a winger at some clubs using certain styles of play has changed and they are no longer the out and out top try scorer at the club the tries are more shared out and Ryan Hall's career has spend this era and so is different and plays differently to how he did when he first started.

It's been mentioned by Leeds fans that he the World Greatest Winger (possible in jest), but I don't even think he is Leeds best winger.

Excellent player though, who would do very well in the NRL.

yep he made a mistake , but once again was our best ball carrier constantly making ground others could not . i for one would not swap him for any other super league winger .

He's a very good ( one of the best) winger but an average tackler.

if you watch it back there wasn't much else he could have done but try and blast the winger into the soutstand, the Cowboys had two players on the inside so if Hall had gone low the winger would have just flipped the ball inside for an easy run in.

As Biff says, only option there is to go high, unfortunately he was met by another big and strong winger.

I don't have a problem with Hall. I think he's one of the best wingers in the world and still got plenty of time ahead of him.

I think him, Briscoe and Hardaker will be just as good and important for us this year as they were last year.

What you have to remember about a winger is that they only get the highlight reel tries when they get good running ball.

Because our halves are generally ineffective at the moment the ball isn't coming out quick enough or with enough quality. A winger can't score tries if the ball isn't getting to him.

His work rate is still first class, always there to run the ball in. Also solid under the high ball.

I'd never think of trying to devalue what Ryan Hall brings to our team. He gets through a mountain of work returning the ball and giving the forwards a rest, and very rarely spills the ball in the process. I would want the ball in his hands 30 metres from the line with an opponent to go through/around and believe he fractures the oppositions defensive line more than any of our forwards do or have done down the years. No player is perfect, but I believe Hally has played a major part in our success over the last 8 years. He missed a tackle on Sunday, it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

As said, defensively he has always had moments. I think the biggest problem at present for him is playing outside Joel Moon who is the opposite of a winger's centre, like some sort of anti-Godden.

Hall's miss was a bad one. I agree he had to try and take man and ball but he never looked like making the sort of contact required.

Terrible player. Get rid.

Ryan Hall is bitchslapped into touch by opposition NRL-standard winger and it's Joel Moon's fault?

Ryan Hall is not the only one in the squad who appear never to have learned how to tackle properly, and his attempt, for a guy whose reputation is built on upper body strength was p1sspotical. The OP raises a very valid point. Was he a better try scoring winger a couple of seasons ago, than he is now? Maybe, but I'd certainly have him in the team, whilst not World class, he is certainly talented enough to be an automatic choice for Our Leader.

The poor man's Lesley Vainikolo perhaps needs to 'work a little less harder down at the gym' and lose a bit of unnatural timber.

Said last year when somebody from an opposition club mentioned Hall's try totals dropping from a few years back......he'd still easily score in the high 20's/30 mark if he played on the wing for Wigan with the chances they create for their winger. He's still as good a finisher he just doesn't have Webb and Senior on that left hand side anymore. Since their departures he doesn't get anywhere near the same amount of chances which is frustrating because the guy only needs half or even quarter of a chance to get over the line when close (see Saints playoff game last year).

I think we can start talking about Hall as a problem when he stops finishing the chances he gets. The fact that he doesn't get as many chances anymore isn't really his fault.

As well as no longer having a wingers centre and pall playing fullback putting him in I also think you have to bear in mind we are more balanced in terms of threats. We seem to score more points through the middle, and in contrast to the Senior days, our right hand side is just as strong as the left.

Hall is certainly not 'fast'.

Why?

Wouldn't make him any better at tackling nor would it make the team create more chances for him.....all it would effect (in a negative way) is his impact when carrying the ball back early in sets.

If that's what you want from him, you may as well replace him with George Rose.

I'd like to see Hall and Briscoe both have enough chances to end up with at least 25-30 tries as they're both capable of it. (Obviously Briscoe's injury would effect that)....but they don't. The role Hall has in our style of play then his size is actually correct.

he was as lucky as walters at the end of last season

That is what makes him the complete winger for me, he can finish when given chances yet when he isn't, he is still an important cog bringing the ball back and doesn't shirk work at all. Its a shame he isn't getting the service these days that he did when he first broke through because he is still one of the very best close to the line.I dont really care who is rated WBW, but i personally wouldn't swap him for anyone else in world rugby.

Complete winger is more than a bit of a stretch to describe him, though he'll be fine and dandy in SL. There's no winger in SL capable of treating his defence with the level of contempt that Kyle Feldt did.

Reminded me of a teenage Mal Meninga contemptuously swatting away Les Dyl at Boothferry Park against GB in 1982, except on that occasion Dyl could at least argue in self-defence that Meninga was twice as big as he was.