Riley Lumb, Alfie Edgell and Nick Cotric among Leeds Rhinos wing options after Ryan Hall retires

Including winger Ryan Hall, who announced his retirement yesterday (Friday), seven of the players who lined up against Warrington Wolves two weeks ago won’t be in Leeds’ squad when the new campaign begins. Hall turns 39 next month so his decision wasn’t a shock and Rhinos coach Brad Arthur will already have given some thought as to who takes over the iconic number five jersey in 2027.

Two existing squad members who have played wing in the past are Ash Handley and Chris Hankinson. They may be an option in an emergency, but are both settled in new roles at centre and second-row respectively.

A potential new winger is Australian Nick Cotric who will join Leeds from Catalans Dragons in pre-season on a four-year contract. The former Test and State of Origin man can also play at centre and it’s not yet clear what role Arthur has in mind, particularly with doubts mounting over Jack Bird’s future at Leeds.

If Cotric comes in as a centre, where there is a vacancy following Harry Newman’s departure to Perth Bears, Leeds will need to either recruit or give one of their homegrown youngsters a chance. They are looking to sign a couple of middle-forwards and space on the salary cap and overseas quota will be an issue if they decide to add a winger to the list.

Hall might have dropped a hint in his retirement statement when he spoke of the club being in “a good position to go with the youth”. If that’s the case, the two leading candidates are Alfie Edgell and Riley Lumb, who will both be 22 when next season begins.

They have each already played 28 first team games, with Lumb touching down 18 times and Edgell 11. Edgell is highly-rated by Rhinos’ management and was preferred to Lumb towards the end of the 2025 campaign, but is coming off an injury-ravaged 2026 season when he played only three times.

Rhinos have some highly talented outside-backs in their lower grades, including Oscar Brown and Jacob Hardy, who are both contracted until the end of 2029. They are specialist centres, though Brown - a rugby union convert who Leeds’ management believe has a big future - did play as a winger in the reserves’ golden-point semi-final defeat at Warrington last month. But for a hamstring injury in mid-season, he may well have been given a taste of first team action this year.

Also in the mix is Max Simpson, another centre. Knee problems have restricted him to just three games in the past four years, but he is set for a return to training in pre-season and will be an asset if he can prove his fitness.