Francis Cummins has paid tribute to his support staff, who were last week told they would be losing their jobs or having their hours cut.

The Bulls head coach confirmed a number of his staff will part company with the club next month as part of the cost-cutting measures undertaken.

The club issued a statement last Friday in which chief executive Robbie Hunter-Paul outlined a number of redundancies had been made in every department except the playing staff.

Cummins said all of his staff who had lost their jobs were keen to work their full notice period.

The Bulls chief said: “They could walk away and do their gardening leave now, but every one of them to a man has put their hand up and said ‘no, we’re going to finish off pre-season’.

“That only confirms that I’ve got the right people here because other people would have walked away.

“My staff have been brilliant during this difficult period and I want to pay tribute to them. There are some quality people there who deserve to be working full-time.

“But we will lose people when they have worked their four weeks’ notice, which will be mid-January.”

Cummins admitted the cutbacks would impact on the level of care and expertise afforded to his players.

“I wouldn’t have employed people if I didn’t need them but we’ve got to get on with it because we’re delivering a brilliant programme right now,” he said.

“I’m really happy with it, the players are developing and the gains they have made are tremendous.

“But we’re going to have to find another way to keep delivering a great programme within the season but slightly differently.

“At the moment we’re not too sure how we’re going to do that; we’re going to have to work it out.

“It’s my job to find a way and make sure it impacts on the players as little as possible because they have to perform.”

Cummins said yesterday that, while there had been a number of enquiries for his players, his squad remained intact and no departures were imminent.

The Bulls coach remains hopeful of bringing Warrington prop Ben Evans back to the club next season but admitted: “The current position is that I can’t bring anyone else in until we move someone out.”