VIKINGS coach Francis Cummins accused some of his players of "giving in" during their latest damaging Super 8s Qualifiers defeat.

A 42-22 loss to Toulouse in the south of France leaves the Super League wooden spoonists without a win so far in the Qualifiers and staring at the prospect of relegation to the Championship.

The Vikings led 10-6 early in the game thanks to tries from Krisnan Inu and Harrison Hansen and, after trailing 18-10 at the break, kept themselves in contention thanks to second half tries from Weller Hauraki and Lloyd White before allowing their hosts to finish on top.

"We had a few players who had given in by then, which is the worst feeling in the world," Cummins said.

"It's a strange one because we dominated field position and worked really hard to win the ruck, but we didn't have enough quality down the other end.

"You've seen a team who have not won for a long time, there's a few people out there whose heads are pickled. I don't know what we're doing at the moment.

"We follow instructions to a point, but we didn't have enough quality down the other end and Toulouse got us on some last plays.

"They allowed the game to go a little like touch and go Toulouse are very good at that."

Widnes, who lost experienced prop Gil Dudson with an ankle injury, take on reigning Super League champions Leeds in their next match and Cummins, still in temporary charge following the mid-season sacking of Denis Betts, admits it will be tough lifting his players.

"At the moment it's very difficult," he said. "I thought we had a reaction to last week, when we were really poor, and that got us to 50 or 60 minutes.

"But you can't play the game for that amount of time, you've got to play for the full 80."