Andy Pratt hopes Canterbury Rugby Club’s defeat at Worthing will spark a response in their daunting trip to Taunton.

The city club head down the M4 to face an unbeaten Titans side riding high in National 2 South, in contrast to Canterbury, who have lost both away games they have played.

The head coach said after Saturday’s 36-25 loss at Worthing: “The level of performance in our opening three games has not been where we want it to be. It’s maybe a wake-up call to
the standard in this league this season.

“We didn’t give a good account of ourselves and let them go 14-3 ahead early on. That gave them confidence but on the back of two defeats to begin the season, if we’d made a fast start it could have put more doubt in their minds.”

Canterbury have lost in successive seasons in Somerset, most recently 38-34 in October 2013 and Pratt added: “Taunton are going to be difficult to beat down there.
“They are unbeaten and only one of those has been at home, where they are traditionally strong.

“They are clear favourites and we’ll need to raise our performance by at least 25% to stand any chance. “We always have moments even in our worst performances, though.
We always look dangerous. Hopefully, we can pull it all together on Saturday.”

Martyn Beaumont (head) and Brook Cowan (knee) remain out while Guy Hilton (knee) is set to miss the game and Alex Wake-Smith has work commitments.