Leeds Rhinos coach addresses Jake Connor's England Ashes hopes with 'why couldn’t he?' comment
Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur has reflected on pivot Jake Connor’s form and England prospects ahead of tomorrow’s (Friday) showdown with his former club Huddersfield Giants.
The pre-season signing has assisted with 10 tries in the opening seven rounds of the Betfred Super League season, the second-most in the competition and just two behind St Helens’ Jack Welsby. He is also second on the Man of Steel leaderboard with 10 points, one adrift of Hull FC’s Herman Ese’ese.
Connor played five times for England in 2018 and earned three Great Britain caps the following year, but asked by the media this week if he could force his way into contention for the 2025 Ashes based on his current form, the Leeds coach insisted: “That’s a long way away.” He said: “Jake’s focus right now is about walking off the field pretty confident and happy with the way he has played.
“He is focussing on making sure he backs that up each week and if he does enough of that by the end of the season, why couldn’t he? But at this stage, it’s the furthest thing from his mind and our mind.”
Arthur stressed: “It is about him being able to replicate what he is doing each week, because every time he does it teams will start to have more of a target on him and will come up with more defensive plans to stop him. If he can keep at it and keep nullifying those, he might put himself in the frame, but it is too far away to be thinking about at the moment.”
Though Connor has set up four tries for Rhinos’ right-side second-rower James McDonnell in the past two games, Arthur is more impressed with other aspects of the full-back/stand-off’s game. “He has been good,” Arthur added. “All that stuff you guys [the media] talk about is great, but I am enjoying the style of footy he is trying to play for us where it’s all centred and focussed around his defensive efforts first and where we are finishing our sets.
“That’s probably providing him with an opportunity and springboarding him into games, to be able to come up with the confidence to pull the trigger and make those plays and execute them at the right time. I think it’s his mindset to some of the effort areas and the different approach to his game which is allowing him the confidence to back himself to play the way he is.”
But Arthur warned Connor still has work to do and has to stay consistent in today’s match. “I have challenged him to stay in that mindset and not get ahead of himself and not get excited,” he stated. “Every game is a new game and every half’s a new half. He might kill it in the first half, but he can’t go back out there in the second half and think it is just going to happen. He has got to start again and work at it and build it. He has shown some good patience and composure at doing that and he is reaping the rewards and so are we as a team.”