Leeds Rhinos: We were good value for our victory says boss McDermott

It was Rhinos’ 14th successive home victory over Hull at Emerald Headingley.

McDermott said: “I thought it was a good reaction to our loss against Widnes.

“It has been a long time since we’d played and I wasn’t sure what we’d be like. I thought it was a good contest in the main and ultimately I thought it was our defence that got us it.

“I thought we were very strong defensively and we weren’t far off in attack.

“I am pretty proud of how many times we kept them out.

“We were good value for the win.”

McDermott praised his team’s attitude and was also delighted with their completion rate.

Scrum-half Richie Myler was Rhinos’ man of the match and McDermott said: “He is starting to strike some onfield relationships with players now.

“He is having a good influence on us.”

Rhinos travel to unbeaten St Helens next week and will then take on Castleford Tigers in a Grand Final rematch.

“We have played five games, one of them being the World Club Challenge and I think we are in good shape at the moment,” McDermott said.

“We are looking forward to the next few weeks.”

Hull boss Lee Radford was “devastated with the loss”.

He said: “We went down swinging, so I was pleased with that.”

Hull had a try controversially disallowed by video referee Phil Bentham, but Radford refused to blame the officials: “Some weeks you get them, it’s swings and roundabouts.”