Leeds Rhinos coach praises Jake Connor 'consistency' ahead of Hull KR, highlights 'good signs of improvement'

Connor was not among the six Rhinos players this week named in England’s train-on squad ahead of the Ashes Test series against Australia which begins at Wembley on October 25, The 30-year-old scrum-half was top of the Man of Steel voting when that went secret last week, but - though he described him as a “really good player” - national coach Shaun Wane has said he wants to see more consistency from the Leeds man.

Connor will be up against potential England half-back Mikey Lewis in tomorrow’s first versus third clash and giving his reaction to his omission, Arthur stressed: “Whether he should or shouldn’t be in the [England] squad has nothing to do with me.” The Leeds boss stated: “I have control over what team gets selected here - I don’t have any control over the England squad. Jake has been one of our most consistent players, he has worked really hard and trained really well.

“He and I have had a brief conversation about it and the only thing he can do is - the same as team selection here - play well, train well and you just don’t know what might happen. It is a long way away and if he continues to play well he might force their hand. At the moment, he is more than comfortable doing his job for us. He knows where he stands in this team and this group and that’s all he can focus on.”

Connor is ever-present for Rhinos this season and Arthur insisted he has been “very happy with his consistency”. He added: “I think he has had one game where I thought he was a bit off and that was against Saints a fortnight ago. Outside of that, there have been periods in games when he could have done bits and pieces better or he has drifted in and out at times, but it is hard to be on top for a full 80 minutes.

“That is what he is learning to do. He is playing a new role for us, at number seven, that’s not something he has had a lot of experience or practice doing and I think there has been good general signs of improvement. We have focused a lot around his effort areas and he is getting better.”

Connor, along with all his teammates, will have to be on song tomorrow away to the Betfred Super League leaders and cup holders. Rhinos have lost their last six meetings with Hull KR, but Arthur vowed: “We are looking forward to it. We feel like we did a good job the last time we played them and got ourselves in a winnable position, but just lacked a little bit of belief and control at the back end of the game.

“Hopefully we can still be swinging at the 70-minute mark and have learned from our errors against them last time. We can focus on how good they are - and we have the utmost respect for how good a team they are - but our biggest challenge is making sure we are good.

“If we can walk away from there after putting in a performance we’re really happy with, we’ll have a really good indication of where we sit, depending on how the result goes. We’re only going to learn more about ourselves if we give the best account of us. We are chasing the best version of what we can do.”