McDermott: Cuthbertson was a standout

Leeds head coach Brian McDermott has described Adam Cuthbertson as a real game changer in his side’s win over Leigh.

The Rhinos secured their first two points of the season with a 17-14 victory against the Centurions.

Leeds prop Mitch Garbutt was taken ill before the match against Leigh with Cuthbertson starting his number 10 jumper.

“Adam Cuthbertson was the difference,” McDermott said.

“Without him coming on the field we probably would have stayed into that slug fest.

“He started a lot of the good things that went on for us.”

Whilst McDermott was happy with the defensive efforts of his team, he was also critical of how they gave the ball away too much.

“I am pretty pleased and pretty proud of the defensive efforts that they showed in the second half,” he said.

“At the same time the amount of times we turned the ball over is unacceptable and it’s clearly not going to get us too far this year.”

McDermott admitted he was getting ready for a rather different post-match interview when Leigh had a few late chances to score and snatch victory.

Atelea Vea had a great opportunity to seal a late winner for the Centurions, and just needed to pass it to one of his two outside players, but decided to go it alone and was upended by Ryan Hall.

“I was getting ready for the post-match chatter ‘it served yourself right,” McDermott said.

“I am getting ready for them scoring a try.”

McDermott was also pleased with the performance of captain Danny McGuire, who made his first appearance off the bench since returning from injury.

“I thought he looked sharp, he looked keen and it’s good to have him in the team,” he said.

“He’s a threat with the ball himself and defenders have got to manage him which opens it up for other people.”