Huddersfield Giants: Jake Connor escapes ban despite sin bin for lashing out

Following their Challenge Cup semi-final defeat at the weekend, Huddersfield Giants’ Jake Connor has learned his disciplinary fate.

Connor was the instigator for two on-field scuffles, pushing Jake Thewlis over the ad boards and later lashing out at him after an attempted play-the-ball, causing him to be yellow-carded.

The Giants have now lost four games on the bounce, and he has been at the centre of scuffles in each of them.

After the latest game, Ian Watson said in his post-match press conference about his disciplinary record: “I think I’ll speak to Jake about that before I comment in the press or anything else. I think he deserves that but we need to get on top of it.”

He also had to be held back from the bench of his former club, Hull FC, earlier this season, in just another incident that demonstrated his ill-discipline.

Now, after Monday’s RFL Match Review Panel released its decisions, he has discovered his fate.

Huddersfield Giants: Jake Connor learns disciplinary fate

The RFL told Serious About Rugby League that they had investigated a large number of incidents with 17 separate incidents eventually cited across the two fixtures but almost all of those didn’t result in a charge, including two for Jake Connor alone.

Therefore, despite being arguably the reason for major scuffles in the game, Connor has completely escaped punishment.

Given the larger number of incidents, the full minutes were released this week, meaning that details of why Connor wasn’t banned have been confirmed. Of the two incidents, the first saw him push Josh Thewlis over the advertising boards before he then lashed out at the winger during a play the ball.

For the first incident, the MP Minutes read: “Opponent stops player from getting to the ball. Player makes minimal contact with the opponent who goes over the advertising hoardings.”

For the yellow card incident, it read: “Player reacts to opponent by pushing out at opponent on the ground. Player on warning due to previous incident. No punches thrown.”

Elsewhere, it was Wigan Warriors that were the big losers from the Match Review Panel’s decisions, putting a dampener on their victory.

Kaide Ellis and Sam Walters have both been handed a one-game ban for Grade B Dangerous Contact and Head Contact respectively.

Luke Thompson got a £250 fine for his Grade B Dangerous Contact charge as he wasn’t at the higher end of the grade.