Bury St Edmunds head coach, Nick Wakley, was upset with his side’s attitude and overall performance during last weekend’s disappointing 21-14 defeat at Dings Crusaders, and he is hoping for a big reaction against high-flying Taunton Titans at The Haberden this afternoon (3pm).

Having produced one of their best displays, under Wakley (appointed in early November), during the previous Saturday’s 57-7 home win over Old Redcliffians, the Wolfpack were woefully second best in Bristol just seven days later.

“This weekend is a big test. We are a rollercoaster ride at the moment, which I want us to get off,” explained Wakley.

“We are very up and down. We need to string together some consistent performances.

“Last weekend at Dings, as a rugby player and a coach, I questioned our attitude and our desire, and that criticism can be taken one of two ways.

“Hopefully, the boys will learn from this, and learn that they have to have the same approach for every game.

“Going to Dings, with their fantastic facilities, good pitch and the weather holding off, it should have all been set up for us to play some good, expansive rugby, but in the end we left it too late to do anything. That attitude is a bugbear for me. Dings were very hungry in defence, but we made mistakes and some of our game-management was poor.

“These young lads are learning on the cliff face, and there have been some very open and harsh reflections during the week.

“The boys are hurting, and I’m looking for a reaction this weekend against a Taunton side who are targeting promotion, and so will have the desire.

“We need to match that, otherwise it could be another embarrassing defeat like the one we suffered down there (50-0) just before I arrived.

“I have freshened things up with a few changes, to shake things up a bit,” added Wakley, who will give a start to Mike Stanway on the wing, recall David Coutts at prop, and shift Anton Limlei to full-back.

BURY: Robinson, Francombe, Coutts, Bixby, Scholes, Grey, Walker, Uru. Harvey, Richie, Wiltshire, Leng, Bodkin, Stanway, Limlei. Replacements: Wilson, Graham, Davis, Johnson, Affleck.