'Best-ever mid-season signing': Leeds Rhinos' Kallum Watkins hailed as Jake Connor future role revealed

The 34-year-old rejoined Rhinos in April from Salford Red Devils and has been outstanding during their current four-game winning run. He started at loose-forward against Wakefield, but switched into the backs at times after Rhinos lost Lachie Miller to a calf injury. “I said to Bleasey [sporting director Ian Blease] he will probably go down as his best-ever mid-season buy,” coach Brad Arthur said in his post-match press conference.

“He has been really good. Guys like that, with his experience, make it easier because I don’t have to worry about them - him and Hally [Ryan Hall], how they prepare themselves and get ready to play.

“It gives me more time to spend on the less experienced guys, who I probably need to put more time into. They are really beneficial to me as a coach, those guys. Kallum just shows I can put him anywhere and he will still do a job for us.”

Rhinos powered into a 22-6 interval lead, but had to switch Jake Connor from the halves to full-back following Miller’s injury. Arthur said: “Jake did a good job, in the first half he was really good. I feel like half-back is probably going to be his best position; he can certainly be a six, but he has certainly stepped up to the role of managing a team.

“He needed to be better in the second half, he is aware of that and he’ll learn some lessons from it, but the good thing about it is he walked straight off the field and he was just worried about a couple of things he got wrong in the second half. That is the sign of a bloke who wants growth in his game and to improve.”

Assessing the team performance, Arthur added: “We were very good in the first half. We had some forced changes to the second half and going into the breeze, we probably didn’t manage the game as well as we did in the first half.

“They really came after the game in the second half and credit to them, they had plenty of fight. We learned another way to win, which was good and what I did learn is there’s plenty under the bonnet in the team.

“That’s what really pleased me. I am proud of their efforts, the want and desire was there. We made it tough at times, but they also made it tough for us - we didn’t do a heap of things wrong, they were just really good in the second half. They had a lot of possession, but we hung on.”

Arthur admitted the heat was on Leeds in their annual motor neurone disease awareness game, with Sam Lisone and Mikolaj Oledzki both making their 200th career appearance and Rhinos chasing a fourth successive win. “There were plenty of reasons and sometimes they heap pressure,” he noted.

“It’s only a month ago we didn’t handle the pressure too well against Hull KR and got run down, so you can see we have grown again as a team. We were chasing a performance, not so much the result, but we got a good, strong performance, which ended up in a good win.”

Arthur was happy with his side’s “control and execution” in the opening half, but conceded: “We didn’t execute to the best of our ability in the second half, but there’s probably some circumstances around that. In the first 40 we executed our plan really well, but then we lost Lachie and we had to make changes.”

Rhinos have no game this weekend, when Betfred Super League takes a break for the Challenge Cup final. Arthur said: “We’ve got a week off so [the players] can have a rest, then we’ve got Warrington. We’ll see if we can get better with our performances, back that first half up and see if we can do a bit better in the second half.”