Leeds Rhinos boss Rohan Smith picks out most pleasing aspect of Warrington Wolves demolition

The Rhinos ran in eight tries in a dominant performance at the Halliwell Jones Stadium but they had to withstand a lively start by the hosts.

Warrington twice broke from deep in the early minutes only to be crowded out by pink shirts.

Leeds continued to put their bodies on the line to deny the Wolves, whose only points came courtesy of a flying finish from Matty Ashton.

Those defensive efforts allowed the Rhinos to implement their game plan at the other end, according to Smith.

"We were a little shaky to start with and had a few moments on our left edge early in the game," he said.

"But I really liked how we scrambled out of it and the most pleasing part of the evening was how many times people got under the ball to stop it from getting put down.

"That gave us an opportunity to play how we practised. I liked how we planned each play for what it was worth rather than trying to get to a point or being too structured.

"We had good patience and good calmness. Nobody is getting too high or too low with whatever play is going on. They're just playing."

The Rhinos took the game away from Warrington with three tries during a scintillating five-minute spell towards the end of the first half.

"It was good footy," said Smith.

"We've talked about playing that way: if it presents itself, throw the pass. The key part of all that is support play and being in that moment.

"That period of play probably typified that theme."

James Donaldson and Ash Handley could lay claim to scoring the try of the game but the move that saw Kruise Leeming touch down lit up the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

It owed to a superb tip pass back inside from Richie Myler in heavy traffic.

"That's what combat sport is all about - executing skill under physical pressure," added Smith.

"It's not easy to compose yourself as a small human about to get hit as you're trying to execute some skill.

"Much respect for the way he held himself together there."

The 40-4 win was all the more impressive after the Rhinos lost Morgan Gannon to a head injury in the first half.

Smith reserved special praise for his forwards in the engine room.

"It was a good team performance," said the Leeds head coach.

"There were great contributions across the board. We lost young Gannon early in the piece which required some extended minutes from our middle people because Donno was due to play in the middle and ended up needing to play the majority of the game on the left edge.

"It was a big shift for some of our middle people. Matt Prior hasn't played for five weeks or so and gave us a big shift, but they all contributed throughout."