Defence got Leeds win over Hull FC, says Brian McDermott

Leeds Rhinos coach Brian McDermott said his sides defence is what won them the game against Hull FC.

The Rhinos led 10-6 at the break and hung on for a 20-16 victory, despite a second half fightback from the Black and Whites at Emerald Headingley Stadium on Thursday night.

And even though Leeds scored four tries, McDermott says their difference was the real key to victory.

Speaking after the game, he said: “It was a solid game.

“The early lead gave us a cushion and there were one or two moments when Hull challenged us and there were some moments towards the back end of the game when we defended on our try-line.

“Hull are a big team, strong team and are incredibly hard to stop so close to your try-line and we found that out on the couple of occasions that we conceded so there was a big effort from us in defence.

“Hull were missing some bodies so there is a better version of Hull but credit to them, they played good and they had a crack. I thought we defended really well and I don’t think it was our offence that won us the game, I thought it was our defence. “

And McDermott was impressed with three of his forwards in particular.

He added: “People like Brad Singleton, Brett Delaney and Jamie Jones-Buchanan chew through so much work that it goes unnoticed but in games like that – those blokes are massive for us.

“We are not after perfection at this stage of the year but you don’t want to be losing too many either and the loss at Widnes taught us some lessons about ourselves and I think we saw that tonight with how we responded.”