Huddersfield Giants coach Ian Watson on Jake Connor cameo and reasons behind changes

The 28-year-old, who has had to be patient since rejoining his boyhood club following knee surgery, blew away the cobwebs as a second-half substitute on Thursday night.

"We told him there was no pressure on him and that we just wanted him to go out there and find his feet," said Watson.

"He's been told to play within the system but if he sees something, go and get it. Then if it doesn't work, just drop back into the system.

"He wasn't ready for 80 minutes and it'll be a few weeks before we get him where we need to get him to."

Connor showed signs of rust in his first outing in seven months but gave glimpses of his class.

The former Hull FC man played an important role in Louis Senior's late try by engaging the defenders long enough to give Will Pryce the time and space to put the winger over, while he also kicked a 40/20.

"He knows how far to get into the line," added Watson.

"We talk about age and experience, when you're a creative player, you know how far you need to get into the line and know you've got those defenders. Some young lads while they're learning don't know they've got them on the end of their hook and might take an extra step.

"Jake is a top attacker with 30-odd assists last year. That's because he picks the right moments of when to play."

Watson rang the changes against Saints with Oliver Wilson, Tui Lolohea, Josh Jones, Jake Bibby and Leroy Cudjoe all dropping out of the team beaten by Wigan Warriors.

Jones missed out due to concussion protocols, while Wilson was nursing a back issue and Lolohea had a hamstring complaint.

Asked how many of his decisions were performance-based, Watson replied: "Three of them. So the wings (Bibby and Cudjoe), for sure.

"We made a couple of errors there last week which led to tries; Wigan didn't break us down.

"Tui ran today and said he could have played on the back of it but those noises weren't there at the start of the week so we wanted to be set with what we were going with.

"Olly definitely wasn't dropped. He's got a bad back. He turned up to training today telling me to jab him up but we're five weeks in and want people fit going forward.

"We've attacked this year completely different to last year when we frontloaded everything and burnt out towards the back end.

"We've gone with a process and a plan to make sure we get what we want to get at the end of the season. While we're performing like that, it'll be on track."