Leeds Rhinos: Mac won't offer any excuses for loss

The game came seven days after Rhinos returned from a week in Australia and Leeds were without 12 members of their first-team squad due to injury. Seven players came in for their first appearance of the season, but McDermott said jet lag wasn’t a factor and insisted the players on duty were good enough to win.

“Widnes had some missing as well,” he said. We had enough experience out there – that was a disappointing loss.

“I thought we showed loads of endeavour with the ball, but we didn’t do enough with it.

“We didn’t stretch or challenge Widnes enough, there were way too many one-off carries and too much grunt.

“Widnes don’t spent that much on their squad and they are used to being in battles and want to be in battles. We ended up playing a version of the game that suited them.”

McDermott admitted it was a similar scenario to the past three years, when injury-hit Rhinos lost at a Widnes side coming off the back of a run of defeats.

“It went to script again,” he said. “We had enough field position and enough momentum to be able to beat Widnes and we should have done, but they are a tough team who won’t give in.”

Asked if there were any positives, he added: “We ran courageously, we broke tackles at times and toughed some stuff out in defence.”