Francis Cummins surveyed the wreckage of the Bulls’ thumping 46-4 defeat to Catalan and admitted: “That was embarrassing.”

The Dragons breathed fire with a comfortable eight-try victory that put a massive dent in the Bulls’ survival hopes.

Cummins’ men made a shocking start which saw Morgan Escare and Michael Oldfield score long-range tries either side of Elliott Whitehead’s 12th of the season.

They never recovered as Catalan went on to score five more tries and leave the Bulls on zero Super League points after 14 games.

Head coach Cummins said: “You can’t give Catalan all that time. Our defence wasn’t good enough and I thought we were embarrassing at the start of the game.

“They’re a good team but we gave them all that possession and came up with some really bad errors in our outside backs.

“It becomes very difficult after that but when you have a handful of players who are way off the pace, as we did today, then we get embarrassed and that’s what happened.”

Despite being boosted by the return of Manase Manuokafoa, Antonio Kaufusi and James Donaldson, the Bulls were collectively way off the pace and did not seem up for the fight.

Asked if he felt the players had let him down, Cummins said: “They have let themselves down and everyone involved in the club down.

“Catalan were good and we even talked at half-time about looking after the ball – then we go and turn it over again.

“When you keep making errors, it becomes a tough day at the office. We were ill-disciplined and Catalan don’t need any encouragement over here.

“I thought Nas (Manase Manuokafoa) did really well and (Antonio) Kaufusi looked intimidating. I thought our middle looked good early on but our edge defence wasn’t good enough.”

Next Sunday’s home clash with Wakefield has now taken on added importance and the Bulls must win to avoid falling further behind.

Cummins said: “We knew Wakefield was a big game anyway and hopefully we’ll have a handful of players who are willing to do a job for the team.

“If we have then we won’t be far away. If half a dozen don’t turn up or decide to do something else, then we will get embarrassed again.”

The Bulls could be boosted by the return of Matty Blythe, Jamal Fakir and Dale Ferguson after lengthy injuries for the Wakefield clash, while Matt Diskin and Chev Walker are also set to be available.