Time to stop talking and rescue our season, says Rhinos chief

Inconsistent form sees them in danger of unthinkably missing out on the play-offs for the first time in Super League history.

A trip to second-placed Warrington Wolves is, on paper, hardly ideal to stimulate a recovery but McDermott says there can be no more excuses.

Reviewing the video of last week’s demoralising 50-8 home loss to Wigan highlighted the current gulf in class between his side and the leaders. McDermott said: “It wasn’t easy watching that again.

“Quite often this year I’ve said in patches we were good.

“Even against St Helens (46-6 loss) my immediate reaction I got wrong – I thought we were a lot better than what I said straight after the game – but against Wigan we just weren’t there.

“That is disappointing. There’s been a few things said and the players have said a few things too.

“But you get to the stage where you can talk too much and you’ve just got to start doing it. That’s where we are at the moment.

“I don’t want to play down Wigan and say it wasn’t a big thing – it was – but I’m past that and now we’ve got Warrington where we need to do it on the field.”

McDermott understands why fans may be disgruntled with the club currently struggling in ninth spot but he has called for unity.

“I’m disappointed we find ourselves where we are on the ladder but I will say this – it’s going to take an effort from everybody,” he added.

“That’s staff, players and fans to get behind the team, behind the club and let’s see what we can get from the remainder of the season.

“I know there’s lots of things not quite right at the moment and to pick fault with.

“The world’s full of people who can tell you what’s wrong but there ain’t too many people who can tell you how to fix it.

“We need people to be supporting the club rather than booing and putting extra pressure on the players they don’t need.”

McDermott maintains he has faith in his playing personnel to improve performances and respond to the critics.

“For any coach his ongoing fear is the players end up not caring,” he said.

“But they couldn’t be further from that. We may be dropping too many balls, coming up with silly plays and a bit fragile defensively at times but what we’ve shown this year is we can be very, very good in all those areas.

“That gives me confidence as does their work ethic.

“When I look back at last year, we started to perform as a group when we got some momentum behind us. That’s what we need at Warrington.”

McDermott recalls winger Ben Jones-Bishop in place of Lee Smith and will start with Rob Burrow at scrum-half following Danny McGuire’s injury while forwards Ian Kirke and Darrell Griffin are also brought back on the bench.