Why Jake Connor was picked instead of Matt Frawley for Leeds Rhinos win v Wigan Warriors

For the first time this season, Lachie Miller, Brodie Croft, Jake Connor and Frawley were all available for selection. Despite Frawley being in contention after concussion, Arthur stuck with the spine from the previous week’s Betfred Challenge Cup loss at St Helens, with Miller starting at full-back and Croft and Connor in the halves.

Speaking in his press conference after Rhinos’ 12-10 win, Arthur said: “Frawls has had a bit of an interrupted start to the season with a head knock and a hand injury. I just felt like Jake has contributed a lot of big moments when we needed them, with some try assists, so I wanted to continue to have him in the team. And his goal kicking, which proved handy for us tonight.”

He admitted: “It was a tough decision because Frawls is a good, calm head, a controlling head and in those big, pressure moments he is very good. Jake is all-out attack and so is Crofty and Lachie. It’s about getting the balance right.”

Arthur feels his side still aren’t at their best with the ball, but reckons that will come as the spine get more time together. “We’re getting better, but we are still miles away from where I think we can get to, especially our fluency with the ball,” he said.

“We put ourselves under a bit of pressure in the second half, but the effort and physicality has been there all year. Whilever we can keep that, we’ll be in the fight. We lacked a bit of cohesion at times, especially at the tryline, but that spine have had three sessions together. That’s not an excuse, it’s a reason why we look a bit clunky at times.”

The coach was full of praise for his pack, who took the game to Wigan from the off. “What about our three starting middles - Mikolaj [Oledzki], Cooper [Jenkins] and Keenan [Palasia] - how good they were tonight and how good they were last week, against two of the best forward packs in the camp,” he said

“The pack are just working hard: James McDonnell, the work he has been doing racking up 50 tackles each week and no misses and just grafting away; Bentos [James Bentley], what he is doing when he goes from the edge to the middle and [Morgan] Gannon comes on and he is hard to pull down. Tom Holroyd came off the bench and carried the ball - we are pretty lucky, the forwards have been doing a really good job and paving the way and they have been really reliable and consistent for us.”

Asked in particular about Oledzki, Arthur hailed him as “a great player”. He said: “He is such a likable person, he is a good person - I have warmed to him really quickly and I like the way he plays. He is a freak, because he is fit, he’s strong, he’s big - he gets through the minutes, he carries the ball hard and works hard. I like the way he plays and my job is to keep challenging him about doing that every week.”