I DON’T think many spectators or TV viewers would dispute the fact that Jake Connor had another outstanding game for Leeds against Warrington on Saturday.
And the importance of that was that he was playing against England stand-off George Williams, who was captaining Warrington.
Connor had a hand in almost everything Leeds did well. And they did a lot of things well.
For some reason the Leeds coach Brad Arthur seems to have found a way to get the best out of him consistently, whereas at his previous clubs Jake would often play well for a spell but then spoil his game with a lack of concentration, often signified by his run-ins with referees or opponents.
Those elements of his game seem to have largely disappeared this season.
The result is that he is leading the way in both the Albert Goldthorpe Medal standings and the Steve Prescott Man of Steel table.
In previous years England coach Shaun Wane has suggested that Jake’s inconsistency has been the barrier to his international chances.
I wonder whether he has now had a rethink about that.
And I also wonder when he is going to announce his preliminary England squad in advance of the Ashes series.
Should a player benefit from being offside?
STAYING for a moment on the game at Headingley on Saturday, it struck me that Leeds were very unfortunate to have a try by Harry Newman disallowed.
The score was disallowed because the video-referee decided that Leeds player James McDonnell had obstructed Warrington defender Lachlan Fitzgibbon as the Wolves were defending on their own line.
But the television replay clearly showed that Fitzgibbon, who should have had his feet behind his own tryline at the play-the-ball, was in fact clearly in front of the line and so was in an offside position.
At the very least he should have been penalised for being offside.
But it also seemed very odd that McDonnell should have been penalised for obstructing an offside player.
This is an issue that the match officials need to consider quite carefully.
Fortunately it had no bearing on the ultimate result of the match.
A double dose of Rugby League in Hull
Whose idea was it to give both Hull clubs a home game on Friday night?
It seemed a crazy decision, even though both clubs attracted highly respectable attendance, with a sold-out game in east Hull and a crowd of 13,376 turning up at the MKM Stadium for Hull’s game against Castleford.
Hull KR’s capacity crowd was 11,350 against the Catalans, and I think we can conclude that all those attendees were Rovers supporters.
The club took more than 15,000 fans to Wembley for their Challenge Cup triumph, so they are now at the point at which they are potentially unable to fit all their potential support into their stadium.
It’s a great situation to be in and I wonder whether the club has any more plans to expand its stadium beyond its existing capacity.
Meanwhile, I wonder what will happen next year if the Robins win the Grand Final and are asked to host the World Club Challenge.
Their stadium is too small to make the game financially viable.
So would they be prepared to play the World Club Challenge in west Hull, if the opportunity arose?
I hope so.