McDermott demands an instant response from Leeds

He put their surprise loss against Harlequins last week down to a lack of desire rather than preparation and realises Warrington will expose them ruthlessly if they repeat that attitude.

They face them for the first time since losing the Challenge Cup final last August and McDermott said: “I am sure Tony Smith will have watched our game last week and will be rubbing his hands together at the prospect of playing us.

“However, we have to make sure that we are much improved from last week.

“We were not good enough against Quins and that was not down to a lack of understanding or structure it was just a case that we did not front up on the night.

“We didn’t put our head where it hurts and do the things you need to do to stop a team scoring and we need to do that now.”

Warrington are upbeat having ended their 10-year wait for a victory over St Helens.

Former Leeds coach Smith, who had McDermott as his assistant at both Headingley and Huddersfield Giants, is seeking more consistency though.

“We’re trying to establish ourselves as a team that competes regularly and it’s another test for us,” he said.

“We want to get that consistency and add to our improving performance.

“In round one we weren’t great, week two we were better, week three we were better again and I’d like to continue along that vein,” he said.

While Warrington have put together back-to-back victories, Leeds are licking their wounds from that first defeat of the season, by Harlequins, which Smith believes makes them even more dangerous.

“They’re a good team and obviously suffered a defeat that they wouldn’t have wanted last week,” he added.

Bradford Bulls will hand a debut to Marc Herbert against Wakefield tomorrow with their opponents due to give bows to Josh Griffin and Craig Harvey.

Wigan bounced back from their World Club Challenge defeat to maintain their unbeaten start to Engage Super League XVI with a routine 32-16 win over Salford at the Willows.

Hull KR have surprisingly left out former Australian prop Joel Clinton for their trip to Castleford tomorrow amid rumours he could return to the NRL with Willie Mason on his way.