It was the moment where England’s future on the international rugby league stage could have changed.
Three years ago in the Four Nations in Melbourne, England and Australia were locked in a tough but tight arm wrestle. As the clock ticked down at AAMI Park the Kangaroos led by four points but just couldn’t put the English away. Then with 65 seconds to go Liam Farrell dinked in an innocuous grubber kick into the Aussie in-goal.
Australian fullback Greg Inglis went to shepherd the ball out but England winger Ryan Hall loomed larged in the final minute. Just as the ball was about to go out Inglis slipped and Hall made a final lunge to ground the ball. At first it looked like he had missed, but replays showed a solitary finger of Hall’s on the ball before it bounced dead. But the video referee was not convinced and the Kangaroos controversially got away the win. England had racked up another loss to add to the large collection against their old enemy.
If Diego Maradona had the ‘Hand of God’ in the 1986 World Cup, this was the ‘Finger of Hall’ that sadly wasn’t to be.
This Friday the two teams meet again at the same venue for the first time. Hall has played nearly 100 games for club and country since then. It may be three years on but the 29-year old certainly hasn’t forgotten that fateful afternoon when victory over Australia was so close the Leeds flyer could smell it. It is seared into his memory. Hall remains adamant he scored that day in 2014.
“I scored it, I didn’t celebrate it, and that’s probably why it went against me because I just couldn’t see the ball,” he said.
“I put my arm around the back of Greg [Inglis]’s head and took a swipe at it. It’s one of those things, again it’s a learning curve. Next time I’m going to jump up and down and celebrate like an idiot and convince the video ref that I’ve scored it.”
Near misses have been England’s lot against Australia for decades, particularly since the last victory came in the guise of Great Britain in Sydney in 2006. England lost its 2013 World Cup opener to the Kangaroos in Cardiff and their encounter in London in the Four Nations last year. Hall was a part of both of those occasions but is far from scarred from the experience. He can’t wait to tackle the Aussies once more this Friday.
“Playing a champion team in Australia down in Australia, it doesn’t get any bigger or harder than that,” Hall said.
“We’re going to have be really good to win it. Wayne’s confident we can do so that confidence will breed, hopefully we can produce. It’ll be interesting, really exciting as well. It’s not something to be feared, it’s something to get your teeth stuck into and look forward to.”
To beat the Kangaroos England will need to compete for the full 80 minutes and countdown on their penalties and errors. No silly mistakes, no failure to find touch with kicks, no forwards kicking on the six tackle, just smart but simple rugby league. Set completion, winning the ruck area, defense and monstering the middle is vital. Staying with the Australians, and not giving them good field position and easy chances to attack, is half the battle. Hall and co are ready for what often in the past has seemed like mission impossible.
“It’s something that Wayne’s big on is the possession and error count, the way that you play the game,” Hall said.
“The Aussies mastered it the last time we played them. We played them in 2016 down in London and I think they dropped the ball once all game. Playing a team like that that just don’t give you anything and then they’re just so clinical on the back of it. They’re a good team. We learnt that we need to be a bit more like them but we still need to play the English brand of rugby league. The style that we can bring and try to incorporate that while minimizing our errors.”
