Leeds will prove trailblazers just like Bannister, believes Hall

GIVEN his standing as not only the best winger in the world but also one of the fastest, you would not ordinarily associate Ryan Hall with the discipline of middle-distance running.

For him, much like a sprinter, it is all about pace and acceleration which, allied to his considerable strength, makes the Leeds Rhinos star one of the most potent attackers in world rugby.

However, it is the analogy of a distance athlete that he uses to describe the growing potential of the defending champions’ Super League rivals.

Leeds have won the title from fifth for the last two seasons, something that had previously never been done, but a feat he feels will happen more often in the future.

It is why the England international is particularly wary of tonight’s visitors St Helens, who arrive at Headingley for a sudden-death play-off having finished fifth themselves this term.

“It’s just like the old thing with Roger Bannister,” Hall told the Yorkshire Post.

“No one could run a four-minute mile until Roger Bannister did it and now a hundred people have done it.

“I think it will be the same with clubs winning a Grand Final from outside the top four.

“When I first started in Super League – and this is my seventh year now – if you were being 
realistic there was only two or three teams who could have gone on and won it.

“But now we genuinely look at the full play-off system and think any one of these teams could push on and win the competition.

“It’s just like we proved in the last two years when we came from the bottom half of the play-offs 
after everyone had decided you just can’t win it from there.

“We showed that that’s a load of rubbish. You can.

“Saints are in a position this year that we were in last season – coming from fifth with their tails up and coming in with some form at the back end.

“We know they’ll be dangerous.”

Leeds, who finished third after a terrific performance at Wigan almost a fortnight ago, are in this position after losing their opening play-off game at Warrington last Saturday.

Hall, who has scored 16 tries this season, said: “It was definitely a bad day at the office for us. It definitely didn’t go to plan.

“But we’re not too down-hearted about it as we know we’ve got another chance this week to put things right.

“We don’t want to take anything away from Warrington but you definitely saw two sides of the team within seven days of each other.

“Hopefully we’ll be going back to normal and more of what we produced at Wigan.”

However, Saints will certainly test their credentials given Nathan Brown’s side have overcome a slow start to the season to win seven of their last eight games, including an emphatic play-off destruction of Hull KR on Saturday.

They also have an impressive record at Headingley where they hope to secure a fourth successive victory tonight, their last defeat there being in July 2010.

“They are very dangerous,” admitted Hall, about a side Leeds have faced in four of their last five Grand Final triumphs.

“St Helens are St Helens. They’ve got a couple of key people back from injury, played 
really well against Hull KR and put some points on them, so we know they’re dangerous.

“We’ve known that all along and history shows they have that play-off mentality too so they’ll be coming and throwing everything they have at us.”

Prolific Hall, who scored twice when Leeds won at St Helens in March, is closing in on yet another milestone.

He needs just one try to draw level with Saints legend Keiron Cunningham (138) in 10th place in the list of all-time leading Super League try-scorers.

Given he is still aged just 25 and has signed a long-term contract at Headingley, Hall could feasibly go on and haul in club colleague Danny McGuire, who sits at the top of that illustrious group with 207 tries.

However, the Leeds-born player has never been one for personal records and is merely concentrating on taking his side one step closer to another Grand Final at Old Trafford.

As always, the Headingley cauldron should help their cause in reaching the semi-finals.

“Our home support is always very good and gets us up a little bit,” he added.

“It’s great to see the crowd the way they are here and hopefully the result against Warrington won’t make too much difference to what the crowd size will be.

“Hopefully they’ll come and give us their full support.”