McDermott praises his resilient Rhinos

The visitors, who have now lost four of their opening five games, led through Stefan Ratchford’s early try but the Rhinos gradually moved through the gears at a bitterly cold Headingley.

Keith Senior, Jamie Jones-Buchanan and Weller Hauraki all breached the visitors’ line before half-time and Kallum Watkins, Brent Webb, Carl Ablett (twice) and Ali Lauitiiti applied further scores after the restart.

Captain Kevin Sinfield weighed in with 14 points with the boot as McDermott’s men, beaten by Harlequins and Warrington in their previous two outings and crippled by injury, made a welcome return to winning ways.

The only negative for Leeds was a dislocated shoulder sustained by rookie Ben Jones-Bishop, who is set for several weeks on the sidelines.

McDermott said: “The young lads such as Chris Clarkson, Jay Pitts and Brad Singleton did a good job but Ian Kirke and Jamie Jones-Buchanan were just outstanding.

“And I thought we had some terrific leadership from several of our senior blokes in the likes of Danny Buderus, Kevin Sinfield and Rob Burrow.

“They gave us a lot of team structure there, which doesn’t get seen too often, but I can tell you they had a huge influence on how the game flowed.”