St Helens boss Paul Wellens welcomes Jake Connor's Leeds Rhinos resurgence despite Challenge Cup threat

Connor, who joined Rhinos in the off-season after being released from the final year of his Huddersfield Giants contract, has been arguably their most influential player so far this term. St Helens boss Wellens was a full-back - the role Connor has filled for Leeds - during his playing days and the two worked together in the England set up.

Rhinos visit Saints on Friday in the Betfred Challenge Cup third round and Wellens warned: “You have to work hard to limit the impact he has on the game.” He said. “He is a really talented player and has been for a number of years now.

“He’s a really good lad, I had the pleasure of working alongside him when I was on the England coaching staff a few years back and you see when he is playing well how he can impact and influence a team. We’ve got a real job on our hands to nullify his threat, but we’re also aware of the other threats Leeds possess.”

Connor was a Challenge Cup winner for Hull, but had a difficult time during his second spell at Giants. Of his resurgence so far this year, Wellens observed: “He has had a change of environment and sometimes that can help invigorate a player. That may be the case with Jake; I am not sure, but it looks like he is enjoying his rugby and long may that continue. I just hope he doesn’t have the impact we know he can have on Friday.”

It will be Leeds and Saints’ third Challenge Cup meeting in five seasons, with the Merseyside outfit having knocked Rhinos out of the competition in 2021 and last year. The visitors are on the back of an 11-0 Super League loss at Catalans Dragons six days earlier, but Wellens feels they are a dangerous side.

“They are defending differently to how they did,” he said. “You can see the impact [coach] Brad Arthur has had on them as a team - physicality, line speed is a bit quicker and they seem more aggressive than they were.

“There’s a number of different things defensively. With the ball in hand Leeds have always been a really dangerous team, but they seem to have added some defensive steel to their game as well.”

Saints lost their unbeaten record in 2025 when Hull KR left TW Stadium with a 20-10 victory last Friday, but Wellens expects sudden-death rugby to bring the best out of his men. “There’s a real big-game feel about it,” he noted.

“Last week gave us an indication of where we’re at, which is not quite where we want to be. However, we’re not far off and I was encouraged by a lot of the things I saw, particularly from a competitive point of view and an application point of view.

“The defensive resilience we showed in that first half, to defend for long periods, was outstanding. What we need to do is manage the game better so we don’t need to do as much of that moving forward.”