I think he's defused a number of dangerous kicks.
I believe rather than take the easy option of criticising Hall (not because he's above criticism) we should acknowledge the precison of the kick & the effectiveness of the chaser.
Saturday's effort that led to Cahill's try was excellent by their winger/centre - can't recall who it was - & Cahill was in exactly the right place to pick up the ball when it was forced loose.
Contrast that with Senior's effort later in the same corner.
We didn't credit their winger for putting pressure on him but blamed Senior for not taking it.
You can't have it both ways.

Part of the problem is that the kicker as too much time to put the kick where he wants. The advantage is always with the attacking side if you let them have too much time.

Nah, dissagree with that. Their player did not take the ball either, Hall actually pushed at the ball on the floor and pushed it straight into their players hands. He only had to put his hand on it to ground it and diffuse the situation. Not to mention the fact that he was leaning backwards in the air to try and take the kick, in other words he got his positioning all wrong.

He's no worse under a well placed (and well chased) kick than most wingers in the competition and a damn sight better than some.

The expectation seems to be that he should be catching every single kick that comes out towards his wing, which is highly unrealistic.

Like I said previously. Under a high straight up kick, I think he is as good as any other winger. The question was to do with the crossfield kick, and more importantly the amount of times he has fluffed it this season. Are all wingers fluffing this type of kick continuously? or don't other wingers have to contend with that type of kick?

Like I said on the other page, if we are having a dig at Seniors defence and Delaney been slow, why is Hall imune from the critisism?

Go on then Gotcha, give me some examples of when he's "fluffed" one of these crossfield kicks.

He's been outjumped a couple of times (Shenton against Saints at home, Ah Van at Odsal and on Saturday) but that's sport. Sometimes, the other guy is going to do something better than you and get the reward for it.

I'm pretty sure he's not had to deal with just those three kicks of that nature during the course of the season but the ones he's handled don't stick in the memory.

You have just named 3 yourself. I was asking the question on the other page, how many has it been? by my reckoning there has been 6 try's conceeded exactly the same (but might be confusing with errors there), but it's more a case that it appears that it has happened every single week, without try's scored off all. I did say am I making a mountain out of a molehill, and not professing to being right. I also asked, is it just been ignored because of who is playing around him?

How many back to back sets of tackles has the oppossition received this season because of the same error?

It's not a witchhunt on Hall, he still gives a lot more than he conceedes. I am just pointing out why he is immune from critisism but others seem to get it.

I'm with this.

I think Hall has been superb under the high ball in his career. I think his percentages have dropped off a little this season but he's still one of the better players in the league at dealing with these kicks, though he's going through a slight sticky patch.

I'm not in the least bit concerned. Hall is the complete player and, IMO, the best winger in the competition, by some distance.

You sure you can honestly say that without blinkers on Gareth?

He is certainly a damn good winger. But he is miles behind Briscoe, Watkins, Monaghan, and Foster so far this season, in that position.

That's my opinion. He's fast, strong, has a great engine, makes great metres clearing the line and has a try scoring record second to none. I wouldn't swap him for anyone in that list (though I'd be happy to see Briscoe on the other wing).

Agreed on the metres. Although because of Leeds tactics he does do an anwful lot more carries than any other winger in the league. And been the biggest of them all you would expect that. Not that it matters, because it's what he does for Leeds that counts. So drop Foster off the list I said because his metres are not all that special.

Briscoe is certainly above Hall in all facets this year so far though. Who's that Salford lad aswell again that you sometimes mention? His stats are more than comparable, especially consdiering the side he plays for.

I've noticed that over recent weeks. He doesn't seem to jump enough. He was always a dead cert to take high balls in my book partly because of his height, and secondly because of him having a unique 'above the head' bomb taking technique. Now I think that technique has become a little more widely taught / adopted, and suddenly people are out-jumping him. It may be that because of his size he is not able to get off the floor as efficiently as other wingers

Agreed. I noticed that too. We even called it 'The Ryan Hall Catch' in our house, and mention it when other wingers did it.

He used to jump, and catch it with his arms above his head, like a basketball player. Now, he's reverted to the old 'breadbasket' catch and even stopped jumping too! Don't know what's happened.

If that's the only thing he needs to brush up on then considering his tryscoring record I don't think it's too much to worry about.

It's all very well outjumping him for the ball, but when you land he'll be there. It'd be interesting to see how many opposition wingers have been launched into touch having taken a high ball
ahead of Hall.