The helicopter turned back: Leeds Rhinos' Ryan Hall & Scott Grix talk league leaders' shield game 10 years on

Now Hall and Scott Grix - then Giants’ full-back but currently assistant-coach at Rhinos - have given their accounts of one of the most famous moments in the Leeds club’s history. Leeds had led the table for most of 2015 and were six points clear at one stage, but three successive defeats following their Challenge Cup final win at Wembley meant only points difference separated them from Wigan Warriors going into the final round of the Super-eights, at Huddersfield.

Giants could finish top if they won and Warriors lost at home to Castleford Tigers, while Wigan would be league leaders if they achieved a better result than Rhinos. St Helens also went into the final round with a chance of first place, but lost to Warrington Wolves 24 hours before their rivals played.

With seven minutes remaining, Leeds trailed 16-8 and Wigan were comfortably ahead. At that point, Wigan were set for top spot and a home semi-final against Saints. Giants would be runners-up and play host to Rhinos. The RFL had a helicopter on standby to take the league leaders’ shield to the appropriate venue and it launched en-route to Wigan.

But then Tom Briscoe scored in the corner for Leeds and Kevin Sinfield landed a touchline goal, making it a two-point ball game. Two minutes from time, Craig Kopczak was penalised for a shoulder charge and, rather than attempt a winning try, Sinfield took the kick to level the scores.

It seemed Leeds were settling for a draw, second spot and home advantage against Huddersfield in the semi-final. Giants restarted with less than a minute on the clock and 10 seconds remained when Danny McGuire kicked to Rhinos’ left. It was a desperate last gamble that paid off as the ball bounced away from Grix and was collected by Hall, who had time to raise a fist in celebration as he raced clear to touch down.

After a tense wait for video referee confirmation, the try was awarded, Leeds won 20-16 and the helicopter - which had been in the air over Wigan - turned around. Wigan had to settle for second place, with Giants third and Saints fourth. The top two went on to meet in the Grand Final, where Rhinos completed an historic treble of all available domestic trophies. Here Hall and Grix remember that famous finale on September 25, 2015.

Ryan Hall

“It was a massive moment in my career and I can’t believe it is 10 years since it happened, because I’ve got vivid memories of it. I’ve not spoken to Grixy about it, I don’t like rubbing it in anyone’s face, it’s just something that happened in the game. It is a massive part in Leeds’ history, quite a lot of Leeds fans call September 25’ Ryan Hall Day’, which is pretty cool.

“It was just one of those things, it was typical of us and of how Magsy played the game. He picked it, but Joel Moon and I were both shouting to be passed the ball. JP [Jamie Peacock] says the chip over the top never works and it rarely does. It’s the last shot and a bit of a risk, but it happened for us, I think the stars must have aligned. It was perfect and key to us winning the treble.

“It was the first time we had won in four games; we won at Wembley and then suffered a bit of a hoodoo - we weren’t ourselves and we got smashed by Catalans and Castleford. We just needed something to cling on to going into the play-offs. We had been poor since Wembley and that one moment swung the momentum.”

Scott Grix

“It didn’t actually matter to us at the end, because if we had won the game we wouldn’t get anything like they were getting. There were bigger reasons for them, it was just another loss at the time for us. The fact that clip gets used so often is obviously the down side of it, but it was what it was. I am well over it now, it’s obviously a long time ago.

“You don’t forget about it because the play-offs happen every year and it’s the 10th anniversary this year so it is pretty poignant for Hall to be involved again. I reckon I have made bigger mistakes than that. I have had a joke with Jonesy [Rhinos director Jamie Jones-Buchanan] about it - he tells it as an unbelievable kick from Mags, but I thought it was a poor kick, I just misread the bounce. I was thinking it’d bounce differently and I’d run him into touch and the game’s over - I am thinking all that in half a second, but at the time that team came out on top of a lot of 50-50s and generated their own luck, so I have no qualms about it.

“We played the following week at Wigan and got hammered. I think Leeds were creaking at the time and if we did win the game we were going to play them in the semi-final and I feel like we did have a chance. I think we did a good job on them that night, but that moment gave them what they needed to get through the rest of it. Disappointing, but such is life.”