Toronto Wolfpack boss Brian McDermott reacts to "ugly" rout at Leeds Rhinos

Coaching for the first time against the club he led to four Super League titles, McDermott saw his men concede 11 converted tries to remain rooted to the foot of the table.

The result came three years and three days after McDermott's Leeds were beaten 66-10 at Castleford Tigers - a result they later avenged in the Grand Final.

It was Toronto's sixth defeat in as many matches since being promoted at the end of last season, but McDermott reckons current experiences will make them stronger in the long-run.

"We're all right," McDermott insisted.

"You look at that performance and it's horrible - it's as bad as it gets and you've got to go through these things.

"Clubs and teams and environments and organisations all go through these really ugly days where you find out just how ugly we are and it doesn't make things okay, but you've got to go through these moments along the journey.

"We talk about what we might look like in a few months' time, a year's time, 18 months' time and we'll talk about this day and it'll go down in the club's history; what about this day when you got turned over by the Rhinos and were never in it and it was ugly and you didn't win a game from six games?

"That's what environments are built upon, the ugly bits as well as the good bits."

Of how Wolfpack can turn things around, McDermott admitted: "It's not an easy fix, for sure.

"We lack a little bit of belief in our defence. The Rhinos unpicked our systems.

"Up until today it had just been fatigue that saw us dropping off tackles, but the Rhinos outsmarted us.

"The belief will come, but what you can't do is blaming, whispering, losing your nerve.

"You've got to hold your nerve, I'll say that a few times. You've got to hold your nerve through those really, really bad moments, which this is."

Rhinos were 12-0 ahead inside the opening 10 minutes and though Toronto pulled a try back, it was 36-6 at the break.

"I said before the game we were going to have to be really, really good," McDermott added.

"Leeds didn't need an invite, they're playing on the front foot at the moment.

"Had it have been a contest for longer and had we not conceded early, who knows what might have happened?

"What we saw after 15 minutes was the really polished version of the Rhinos, but if it had been a contest for 15 minutes and we hadn't conceded we would've seen another side of them.

"They saw our ugly side real early."