We were simply ripped apart laments McRae after Leeds run riot

The Reds shipped nine tries against the rampant Rhinos and now lie three points adrift of safety at the bottom of the table with just four matches to dig themselves out.

Former St Helens and Hull coach McRae was appointed as successor to the sacked Karl Harrison in June and tasked with preserving the Reds' top-flight status.

But his mission is looking increasingly ill-fated and after this abject surrender the Australian is staring at the dismal prospect of life in National League One.

"I don't think it was a game anyone expected us to win, apart from our fans and ourselves," said McRae.

"But what you saw tonight was an example of a team who is one of the clear favourites to win the competition against a team bottom of the table.

"The scoreline indicated the difference between the two sides and when you arrive at Headingley it hits you how big a club it is.

"And they're a big team. You watch them in the warm-up and start to think that these guys have got plenty of power and pace.

"I thought we tried hard but there were far too many errors and we were totally outclassed."

McRae refused to accept his men are all-but relegated but in their remaining four games they face St Helens, Warrington, Wigan and Harlequins.

Their survival prospects look paper thin and they found themselves 28-4 behind at the break after being totally destroyed by a Leeds side who barely needed to get out of third gear to earn their points.

Tries from Ryan Hall, Jamie Thackray, Kylie Leuluai, Keith Senior and Danny McGuire were the least the Rhinos deserved for their stunning superiority.

Salford, to their credit, refused to surrender after the break but further scores from Scott Donald, Thackray, McGuire and Ali Lauitiiti piled the misery on for McRae.

Leeds coach Tony Smith said: "The performance was mixed but there were some very impressive passages I thought.

"But overall I'm very happy to get a victory like that and two victories I suppose in the space of two weeks.

"We've had a little bit of adversity; we lost a few key players and lost them early in the match as well. We lost (Nick) Scruton there with a broken hand tonight.

"I know he wouldn't be deemed a key player but we only had one out-and-out front rower on the bench so that hurt us.

"And we lost him fairly early in his return match, so that left us with one sub short again.

"We were a bit patchy at times - we were scintillating at times, absolutely fantastic rugby league tries scored but some scrappiness in amongst it as well."