McDermott backs Quins to bounce back

12:35pm Tuesday 15th April 2008

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Brian McDermott has challenged his Harlequins RL side to bounce back from their Knowsley Road horror show when they get their Challenge Cup campaign underway this weekend.

Smarting from the 58-12 hammering at the hands of St Helens, coach McDermott has insisted his side get back to basics for the visit of Castleford in the only all-Super League tie of the round.

But he revealed he is eager to not overplay the occasion.

McDermott said: "The main thing will be to not put too much importance on it as that can get to the players.

"Having said that it is knockout football and we obviously want to advance to the next round."

McDermott cut a desolate figure on the sidelines on Friday night as Quins suffered a ten-try rout at the hands of the Merseyside club.

Although tries from Matt Gafa and Gareth Haggerty briefly threatened a Quins rival, the Londoners never looked like gaining anything from the game.

And that clearly irked McDermott.

He added: "It was the most disappointing performance of the season no doubt - we never played what we planned.

"We gave up the ball far too easy trying impossible passes.

"We looked desperate with the ball at times.

"As crazy as this may sound I didn't think we were that poor defensively, I just thought St Helens were white hot."

The Quins boss was angered by a lack of direction on the pitch on Friday night.

And he warned his squad that he expected a vast improvement come the visit of struggling Castleford for their televised encounter.

He added: "I don't care about what points totals we rack up or the number of spectacular tries we score.

"I'm more concerned with seeing the players do on the pitch what we've talked about all week in training, and that wasn't the case against St Helens."