BRIAN McDermott praised his Leeds side's first-half creativity and second-half resolve as they withstood a Widnes fightback to claim a 42-22 win which lifts them level on points with Super League leaders Castleford.

The Rhinos dominated the first half to lead 30-6, then conceded three tries in barely ten second-half minutes to close the gap to just eight points, before clinching their fifth win in six games in the closing exchanges.

McDermott said: "There were a couple of things involved in the second half, not least Widnes' desire to get back into the game.

"But we were running at 40 per cent in the second half and the last thing we needed to do was give them an invite.

"Credit to Widnes, they made it a contest, but had we done things differently they never would have been able to do so.

"We found ourselves in a situation where we were fighting for the game and credit to our players – they showed some maturity and when they got the chance they got over to score a try.

"I won't get on the players' backs about the second half – it made it interesting and entertaining – but the most pleasing thing is that we were very good and very clinical in the first half."

Kallum Watkins took his season's tally to six with two tries and seven goals, a total of 22 points, while there were also braces of tries for Joel Moon and Matt Parcell, plus an opportunist solo score by Tom Briscoe.

Widnes replied through two tries from Tom Gilmour, who also kicked three goals, plus others by Chris Houston and Corey Thompson. However, it was not enough to improve a record of just one win in ten games for the bottom side.

Vikings boss Denis Betts was left bemoaning injuries which left him with only one fit player on the substitutes' bench by the end of the contest.

He said: "At half-time we spoke about treating it like someone taking something from us in the street and then chasing after them and trying to get as much as we can back.

"We got ambushed at the start and we intended to start quickly ourselves. But we were only competing at 60 per cent and got behind in the penalty count and then we just got caught in a whirlwind of incomplete sets and injuries."

Betts lost Tom Armstrong (knee), Danny Craven (finger) and Lloyd White (hamstring) and added: "Losing Danny and Lloyd – two blokes who are pretty pivotal to what we want to do – made it difficult as we had to switch around a lot."