McDermott slams officials after win
Leeds coach Brian McDermott expressed his frustration at the standard of officiating in Super League after the Rhinos crushed Wakefield 64-20 at Headingley.
England wing Ryan Hall, 23, passed a century of tries for the club with a clinical hat-trick as Leeds bounced back from their Carnegie Challenge Cup final defeat to Wigan in style.
Yet McDermott had plenty to complain about and said: "If anyone wants this game to progress to where we all think it should progress to, our attitude towards dominant teams needs to change because I just thought that was refereed at the lowest common denominator."
He added: "There were 20 occasions when they (Wakefield) could have been penalised for holding down. That went on throughout the game and it was almost like 'let's feel sorry for the opposition.' All it did was make it a frustrating second half for everyone.
"It wasn't (referee) Ben Thaler's fault as an individual, I just think it's our sport and the governing body and the attitudes, instructions and the edicts that come from above allows people to use spoiling tactics and get away with it. Wakefield had some success with their tactics."
It will take more than thumping a team of strugglers to ease the pain of last weekend's 28-18 defeat at Wembley, but Leeds are back to winning ways and again showed some signs of their best form with the play-offs looming.
McDermott added: "I was really pleased for the fellas. They were in a dark place last week and were really determined to do something special. We ran and defended with determination and I thought we could have scored a few more points."
Wakefield coach John Kear felt too many of his players underperformed but he was also quick to pay tribute to the hosts.
"I thought Leeds were very good," he said. "There were some big performances from some of our lads but not enough of them. Motu Tony, Julien Rinaldi, Glenn Morrison and Paul Johnson did well.
"Credit to Leeds. They must have been emotionally and physically down after last week but they did very well."
