Leeds Rhinos' Jake Connor insists winning run 'not down to me' as 'tough challenge' looms v St Helens
Man of Steel leader Jake Connor says playing with a smile is bringing out his best form for Leeds Rhinos.
The 30-year-old was a surprise pre-season signing after being released from the final year of his contract at Huddersfield Giants. He has been Rhinos’ most influential player in their climb to third place in Betfred Super League and showcased his value to the team by scoring a try, setting up two others and booting five goals in last weekend’s 36-12 win against Warrington Wolves.
He is now five points clear of his closest rival, Hull FC’s Herman Ese’ese on the Man of Steel table, but insisted Rhinos’ five-match winning run has been a team effort. He said: “I am really enjoying myself; ever since I came here, I just love being around the place and it is bringing the best out of me. It is not just down to me, it’s down to everyone at the club. I think each player is getting the best out of everyone else and that’s good to see.”
Connor started the season at full-back and has played alongside Brodie Croft, Matt Frawley and Jack Sinfield since switching to the halves for the Betfred Challenge Cup tie at St Helens - who Leeds visit tomorrow (Friday) - in March. He reckons he and the players around him will continue to improve as combinations develop.
“I hope so, that’s what we are striving for,” he said. “It is also easy the way Brad [Arthur, Rhinos’ coach] likes to do things. I have moved into that seven role, but it’s not like Marc Sneyd, where you have to take control of the game - you just have to follow his game plan, it is always a next man up mentality and whoever’s in there will just do a job. That’s what we are doing.”
On current form, Rhinos look to be on course for their first top-four finish since 2017, however, Connor stressed: “I don’t know if I am a big believer in momentum. We are just taking each week as it comes.
“There’s always different challenges, but the coaches are very good through the week at giving us different stuff to work on, new challenges and it almost feels like it’s refreshed every time there’s a game. They have been good with that and we’ll focus on Saints as just another game.”
Though Rhinos defeated Saints for only the second time in 19 attempts when they won 17-4 at last month’s Magic Weekend, Connor warned: “It’s always tough against Saints, it is never easy going over there so we are expecting another tough challenge. In the last five games it has been nip and tuck in the first half and this’ll be the same, but I am sure if we stick to our process we will be in it.”
Leeds played some of their best rugby of the season in last week’s win against Warrington and will cross the Pennines in a confident mood. “It was a tough game,” Connor reflected. “We knew it was going to be, the first time we played them it was really tough and tight so we were expecting that again, but I think we’ve learned a lot since the start of the season.
“Earlier in the year we wanted to polish games off straight away, whereas now we know if we stick to the process we can catch teams at the back end of the game and that’s what we did. There’s no panic, we are really good at getting in the grind now. To be up there with the top teams you have got to do that and it was nice to see us pull away at the end. We were calm, we were patient and we knew we’d get them in the second half. We executed some really good stuff.”