“We’ll talk about this day for years” – McDermott reacts to Headingley horror show

Brian McDermott admitted Toronto’s 66-12 defeat against Leeds was “as bad as it gets”.

The Wolfpack, who have now lost all six of their Super League games, shipped 11 tries on a nightmare return to Headingley for McDermott.

“You look at that performance and it’s horrible,” said the Toronto boss. “It’s as bad as it gets and you’ve got to go through these things.

“We talk about what we might look like in a few months’ time, a years’ time, eighteen months’ time and we’ll talk about this day and it’ll go down in the club’s history.

“What about this day when you got turned over by the Rhinos and were never in it and it was ugly and you didn’t win for six games?

“That’s what environments are built upon. The ugly bits as well as the good bits.

“It’s alright mentioning who we’d like to be but we find out how ugly it can be today. It’s important to build upon those moments.”

The heavy defeat means Toronto remain bottom of the Super League table and still in search of a first win in the top flight.

They will take a break from league action next week when they travel to Huddersfield in the Challenge Cup, and McDermott admits there is plenty to work on.

“It’s not an easy fix, for sure,” he said. “We lack a little bit of belief in our defence. The Rhinos unpicked our systems today.

“Up until today it had just been fatigue that saw us dropping off tackles but the Rhinos outsmarted us today.

“So we’ll look at that but even so, we are just lacking the belief in the shoulder contact that we’re making.

“We’re getting there on some of them but Hakim’s miss on Konrad Hurrell right in the final stages of the game is a great example.

“He did everything right but just didn’t believe in himself enough to make that tackle.

“The belief will come but what you can’t do is go blaming, whispering or losing your nerve.

“You’ve got to hold your nerve, I’ll say that a few times. You’ve got to hold your nerve through those really bad moments, which today is.”