LEEDS head coach Brian McDermott hailed Castleford as the ones to beat as he watched his side suffer a 38-24 defeat at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.

The Rhinos came into the Super League Super 8s clash on the back of a seven-match losing streak to the Tigers, including a 66-10 thumping in the corresponding fixture in March, but they started on the front foot with Kallum Watkins scoring to put themselves into an early lead.

Yet it was one-way traffic after that as Castleford ran in 30 unanswered points, with Greg Eden, Ben Roberts (2), Jake Webster and Alex Foster all crossing the whitewash to give the hosts a deserved 30-6 interval lead.

Jamie Jones-Buchanan and Greg Minikin traded second-half tries in the Friday night contest, while Rhinos hooker Matt Parcell and Mitch Garbutt touched down to round off the scoring as home half-back Luke Gale landed seven goals from as many attempts.

It could prove to be a decisive win for Daryl Powell's side, in a potential dress rehearsal for the Grand Final at Old Trafford on Saturday, October 7 – something that the Rhinos boss is wary of.

McDermott said: "I thought we did enough in the second half to leave with an element of pride. But I have been in this situation before, here, and we didn't have a response in the second half.

"Clearly Castleford were just too good for us in the first half and, looking at them with a couple of games to go, it's going to take an incredible team to stop them and getting to the Grand Final and winning it.

"I also recognise that they aren't running out of steam. I think everyone is still trying to catch up to them. They seem to be able to play freely without pressure.

Despite defeat, Leeds managed to secure a home semi-final with two matches remaining after sealing a second-placed finish in the Super League table thanks to Hull's 30-22 home defeat to Wigan.

While McDermott is looking forward to a Headingley last-four clash, he expects better performances from his side leading up to the play-offs.

"It will be great to play at home in the semi-final and we can deal with that as we get closer to it," he said.

"Based on that performance, we still have a bit of work to do. That performance doesn't instil me with that much confidence if we face Cas.

"We all know what we are capable of. At times we have been extremely good but playing at home is going got be a factor."

Castleford boss Powell was disappointed with his side's application, despite extending their lead at the top of Super League to 12 points after their 24th win from 28 league matches.

He said: "It was scrappy. I thought in the second half we were really poor. I thought there was a period in the first half where we were outstanding but I thought we played well for about 25 minutes.

"I thought we went home at half-time. I thought we did mentally and that isn't going to be good enough. Obviously we won the game, and we are happy with the two points, but yeah, not a great finish to the game."