McDermott: Youngsters will learn from defeat

Leeds boss Brian McDermott believes Friday’s 34-0 defeat at Leeds will provide some valuable lessons for his younger players.

The Rhinos were without 13 first-teamers for their visit to the DW Stadium, but McDermott was philosophical about the result after the game.

“They’re experiences I can’t give them in training – Mikolaj Oledzki has never been hit like that before,” he said.

“There were some valuable lessons. I can’t tell you I’m happy but I’m not down either. On paper it was going to be a tough night and we had hoped the game would have been closer.

“We are disappointed by the final scoreline and disappointed we didn’t score a try.

“But for large parts of the game we put up a fair amount of resistance against a very determined Wigan who were out to respond to their defeat last week.

“There were some good bits in there for us to feel proud of. The half-time score was a better reflection than 34-0.

Once our juniors and also to some extent our senior guys started to fatigue, we conceded some soft tries.”