Wigan Warriors head coach Shaun Wane admitted his team's surprise opening home defeat by Huddersfield Giants was "tough to swallow".
he reigning champions produced a below-par performance to go down 24-8 at the DW Stadium to an impressive Giants team who, on this form, will be fancied to top the Super League table for a second successive year.
The round-one fixture was brought forward a week to enable the Warriors to fly down under to prepare for their World Club Challenge clash with Sydney Roosters but they will travel under a cloud after a disrupted start to their domestic title defence.
"We got outmuscled," Wane said. "The best team won. Huddersfield wanted it more.
"It's tough to swallow because I felt we undersold ourselves. We're better than we showed."
Trailing 12-0 at half-time, the Warriors briefly threatened a fightback thanks to quickfire tries from wingmen Iain Thornley and Joe Burgess but were second best for most of the game.
Their five-try defeat was compounded by hamstring injuries to England internationals Sean O'Loughlin and Michael McIlorum while debutant full-back Matty Bowen, the man signed to replace Sam Tomkins, is facing a possible ban after being put on report for a high and late tackle on his opposite number Scott Grix.
O'Loughlin's late withdrawal forced Wane to reshuffle his pack and McIlorum was restricted to playing just 16 minutes after pulling his hamstring while warming up.
"I would never use that as an excuse," he continued. "That happens, nothing should change. I still expected a high level of performance from us. "We'll fix it, we've got some tough characters in our team."
Wane, who flies out with his team to Auckland this weekend, expects both O'Loughlin and McIlorum to be fit to face the Roosters in Sydney on February 22 and says England winger Josh Charnley to be fit for next Wednesday's warm-up match against New Zealand Warriors after sitting out Friday's game.
He is also confident that Bowen will be available for both games after he was put on report during the game for a high shot against Scott Grix.
"I don't think Matty has done anything like that before," Wane concluded. "It didn't seem too bad to me."