Brian McDermott admitted he was proud of his Leeds players following their battling 16-14 win over St Helens on Friday.

On an emotional night at Headingley, in what was the final match before the demolition of the iconic South Stand begins, tries from Ryan Hall and Adam Cuthbertson saw the Rhinos outlast Saints and edge closer to sealing a top-four place.

McDermott conceded afterwards it was hard not to lavish praise on his troops, commending them for coming out on top on what he admits was a "great game of rugby league".

He said: "I thought we were extremely good, I've never not been proud of our players although I don't say it too much. I'm proud to be their coach tonight.

"I don't know where we got the second half from, Saints were great, beating us off the deck in the first half and we never got to grips with their play-the-balls.

"We rolled up our sleeves and did some hard work, we should have executed better. It was a great game of rugby league."

Elsewhere on Friday in the Super 8s, Joe Burgess crossed twice as Wigan won 42-6 at home against Salford, while a Lee Gaskell hat-trick helped Huddersfield seal an impressive 46-18 win at Hull FC.