'˜Really good' - Brian McDermott happy with Leeds Rhinos' progress

Rhinos ran in five tries to one in a 30-4 victory over Championship side Hull KR in Ryan Hall’s testimonial game last night.

Hall did not have a try scoring chance, but delighted the 6,301 crowd with a conversion from the touchline in the final moments.

And McDermott was pleased with the way his near-full-strength side defended, though he reckons they need to improve on attack.

“We wanted to get something out of it,” McDermott said. “It’s a serious game and we needed to come out of it in better shape than how we went into it. I thought we were really solid. Certainly in attack we probably played a bit too conservative, but as a start off I have no real complaints with that.

“I thought our defence was great and that allows us to progress next week.

“It was a great crowd and they all got behind Ryan and he ended up kicking a goal from the sideline right at the end – crazy.”

New signing Matt Parcell made an encouraging debut at hooker and McDermott said: “He ran, he didn’t need too much of an invite to do that. We will get better playing with him.

“The more games played with him the better it will be, but if that’s a start, it’s a good one.”

The coach added: “It was a warm-up game and a game where we need to find out where we’re at.

“We’ve got a better idea of that. There’s some very specific things we want to be better at, particularly in offense, but at the same time we’re not panicking either.

“Some of the things we did out there I thought were really good.”

Rhinos complete their pre-season campaign next weekend with a trip to Featherstone Rovers on Friday night – where McDermott said he will field a strong side – and a game at Doncaster two days later.

“We will take Featherstone very seriously as well,” McDermott said.

Captain Danny McGuire was taken off with a “pulled quad” after scoring a try early in the second half..

“Let’s hope that’s just a bit of a niggle,” McDermott said.