Wigan captain Sean O'Loughlin was proud of his team's efforts but admitted the Super League champions were no match for Sydney Roosters as they went down 36-14 in the World Club Challenge in Sydney.
The Warriors were hoping to become the first team to win the event four times but they could not recover from the shock of conceding three tries in the first 22 minutes.
"It was a massive effort from us tonight," O'Loughlin told Sky Sports. "We came up against a world-class team.
"We probably didn't do ourselves justice in parts of the game but we stayed with it and fought hard to the end. It's disappointing but it's a good level to come and test us."
Australia Test centre Michael Jennings scored twice as the Roosters led 18-0 at half-time and he went on to complete the first hat-trick in the competition but Wigan restored some pride with three second-half tries, two of them from England winger Josh Charnley on his 100th appearance.
"We kept hold of the ball and they came up with a few errors like we did in the first half," O'Loughlin added. "We had plenty of the ball and they did plenty of defence.
"We caused them a bit of trouble but we didn't do it for long enough and when they did get the ball they caused us a lot of trouble around the middle.
"They're a big set, it's tough to defend against them."
