Leeds Rhinos: Mac happy with defence but not attack as Rhinos grind out first win of season

It finished three tries each, but Liam Sutcliffe kicked a conversion, penalty and drop goal, while Ben Reynolds managed just one success for Leigh.

Rhinos coach Brian McDermott was critical of the number of errors his side made, but delighted with their defensive “steel”.

After seeing them hit back from 8-0 down after as many minutes, he said: “There’s a couple of emotions, one being pretty pleased and pretty proud of our defensive efforts in the second half.

“At the same time, we turned the ball over in a cheap fashion. We made error after error and we aren’t going to get far this year doing that.

“You can correct those things in a matter of days. You can get on top of those things, but what you can’t do is put into a team some toughness, fitness and steel to be able to get through those tough periods.

“But I am not sure how many teams will come here, turn over as much cheap ball as we did and still be able to defend, because they are a very good attacking team.”

McDermott hailed Liam Sutcliffe as “outstanding” and hailed the defence of Carl Ablett, Stevie Ward and Jamie Jones-Buchanan, but said substitute Adam Cuthbertson was the difference between the sides.