“He’s one of the top five players in the country” – Watson says Giants star should be in the England squad

Last week Shaun Wane named a huge 40-man England squad but star player Jake Connor was left out of it.

Today, speaking to the press, Connor’s club coach Ian Watson of Huddersfield Giants was full of praise for him:

“He is an international player, obviously he has not been named in the squad but he is a top end international player who can cause international teams problems.

“The big thing for us, he is playing to the team’s strengths and when jumps out of the system the boys react to him and if it works it work and if it doesn’t he just falls back into the system.

“That is a great strength of a player to play in and out of a system.”

Asked if he thinks Connor will ever play for England again, Watson said he hopes so and said Connor is one of the top five players in the country:

“You’d hope so. He was probably one of the best players in the competition last year so not getting picked for the World Cup last year was obviously a surprise.

“That’s not my job to select the international team. But for me he is definitely in our top five players in this country and should be in the international squad for me but like I say that is not my job.”