HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS BOSS IAN WATSON SPEAKS OUT ON JAKE CONNOR INCIDENT AS ST HELENS EDGE THRILLER

Huddersfield boss Ian Watson defended Jake Connor’s costly gaffe as they blew a golden chance at St Helens.

Jonny Lomax’s 35m drop goal with just 36 SECONDS left saw Saints go top of Super League. But Giants, who led 12-0 early on and were on a five-game winning run, shot themselves in the foot. Ex-England star Connor had a meltdown to let Paul Wellens’ side level an absorbing contest in the 62nd minute.

Just 10m from his own line, the marker defender inexplicably turned his back on Saints to complain to referee Liam Moore about Morgan Knowles lashing out. England hooker Daryl Clark - who’d already clashed with his former international team-mate - didn’t hang around. He picked up from dummy-half and exploited the gap to get over.

Mark Percival added his second conversion to make it 12-12 and captain Lomax held his nerve at the death.

But Watson insisted: “I’d like to see the incident with Morgan Knowles again. He seemed to stand up and lash out on Jake Connor. The play carried on and it’s cost us. Jake has to concentrate on the play that's happening and let the referee ref the game.

“But if you get whacked in the face you’re going to partition the ref. If Jake lashes out there, it’d be interesting to see if Jake would get penalised. But I don’t want to take away from a great game. Our character and resilience was outstanding. We just lacked some smarts in the second half.”

Connor did well to charge down Mose Mbye's drop-goal effort but Saints got the ball back and captain Lomax coolly nailed his shot from 35m out. to settle a thriller. Saints had three efforts chalked off in that second period via Matt Whitley, Clark and Waqa Blake. They had only conceded an average of barely seven points per game in the opening eight rounds, the stingiest defence in Super League by far.

But here they leaked 12 in as many minutes as red-hot Huddersfield burst into an early lead. Ex-Saints players Kevin Naiqama - on his 100th Super League appearance - and top tryscorer Adam Swift both crossed, Connor converting.

But England winger Tommy Makinson replied with a 27th minute intercept, Percival’s goal leaving them 12-6 behind at the break. Saints boss Wellens admitted: “That was a hard-fought win. Huddersfield came to play; we knew they would. So I’m very pleased to get over the line. I’m pleased with the character of the team to come back from 12-0 down. We got beat to the punch a little bit early in the game. But I believe in this group.”

2024-04-25T21:25:03Z dg43tfdfdgfd