McDermott: We were soft

Leeds coach Brian McDermott says the Rhinos were too soft in defence at times against Catalans in their 32-28 defeat on Saturday.

Leeds remain winless in Super League after three rounds.

“We had too many periods where we were loose and, defensively, too many soft periods in the early stages, but we had a crack and had a dig,” McDermott said.

“I’ve been here before where Catalans have got the momentum and we never got back into the game – I’m really pleased that the players found a way to get back into the game and effectively make it a close  encounter.

“But I won’t be consoling myself or consoling my players too much with that because we were poor in too many areas. We’re having a tough period, a tough run at the moment.

“We’re going through it but we’ve got to make sure that we keep working and keep trying to get everything out of the working week. We’ve got a working week to be as good as we can be and then come game day, give it a shot.

“That’s all we can ask of the players – be as good as you can be. There were one or two periods in that game which I thought defined us, and that was one of them. It was a lapse of concentration, while [Inu’s try] came from an offload, it was a pretty soft play from us.”