Luke Gale reveals he “absolutely hated” playing with Jake Connor

Former Super League Man of Steel Luke Gale has admitted that former teammate Jake Connor was ‘hard to play with’ during their time together at Hull FC.

Speaking to the ‘On The Bench’ podcast with Sky Sports’ presenter Jenna Brooks and pundit Jon Wells, Gale opened up on his relationship with the ‘maverick’ Connor.

While revealing that the two have become good mates off the pitch, Gale admitted that he found it a lot more difficult to connect with Connor on it.

“I still speak to Jake, he’s a good pal,” said Gale. “Me and Jake have a relationship where I hated playing with him – I absolutely hated playing with him.

“It was always hard playing against him, but it was even harder playing with him. He is an unreal talent, super talented, but he was hard to play with.

“I told him at the end of the year. I love him as a bloke, but super hard to play with.”

Both Gale and Connor departed Hull FC at the end of last season, with the latter joining his former club Huddersfield Giants.

Speaking on his move back to the John Smith’s Stadium, Keighley halfback Gale believes that Connor will be under a much harder taskmaster in Ian Watson but backed him to succeed.

“I hope he does really well this year at Huddersfield,” Gale added. “I think they’ve got a good squad and I think Jake is really suited to them.

“They play a real structured, almost methodical game with a super high completion. I think just let Jake go play.

“You can’t coach a player like Jake, you’ve just got to let him go but he’ll be the first to admit that he won’t be able to get away with some of the stuff he has before.

“Ian Watson will not allow him to do that, and you can see already he’s lost a load of weight which is something I don’t think Jake would have done last year.”