Francis Cummins admitted some of his players let him down as the Bulls crashed to their heaviest-ever defeat.

Wigan sailed to an 84-6 victory – equalling their best-ever win at Hull KR on Easter Monday last year – and Cummins could not hide his disappointment.

He pointed to the promising debut of 18-year-old prop Sam Bates, an Academy regular who only trains with the first-team squad on a part-time basis.

But he conceded there was not enough fight shown throughout the team as Wigan ran in 15 tries.

Head coach Cummins, who was forced to name four teenagers on the bench due to the absence of seven senior players, said: “Wigan were miles better than us.

“I can look at the situation we are in – seven players missing is a tough one – and we had a couple of part-time lads in the squad from the under-19s.

“I thought some of our lads had a real dig today but there were a handful who were way off it.

"There were times when we almost looked like we had given in.

“That wasn’t the case but it did look like it. You can’t play with a team who aren’t quite there against a team like Wigan.

"Yes, we had an average age of just over 23 and some young lads with not much experience, but I would expect my senior players to stand up.

"Some did and some didn’t, so we’ll have to address that this week.”

The Bulls also suffered another injury blow as rookie forward Oliver Roberts sustained a broken fibia.

Cummins, who said the late arrival of the Bradford team bus owing to traffic congestion had not caused any disruption, added: “We didn’t compete in the ruck and only had nine or ten sets in the first half.

"The game is too hard and that was because Wigan were scoring tries and we were missing tackles.

“There were a lot of mismatches out there and they all went Wigan’s way.

“There were some good things at the end but we needed more composure.”

Cummins paid tribute to debutant Bates, adding: “I’m really happy for Sam because he’s a part-time player who has shone for the Under-19s this year.

“To toil against a team who are totally on the front foot showed great character for Sam and he was terrific.”

Dale Ferguson missed out because of a recurrence of a previous back problem and will be assessed this week along with Matty Blythe, Adam Sidlow and James Donaldson.