Boyd admits Saints' play-off chances are probably over

Before the game, Boyd had stated that his side needed to win all of their five remaining regular-season matches to make the Gallagher Premiership play-offs.

And though Saints fought hard and scored some very tidy tries - David Ribbans delivered two and Henry Taylor one - they could not overcome table-toppers Exeter.

The Chiefs battled back from 19-14 down to secure a 22-19 success at Franklin's Gardens, where Saints have now lost six successive matches.

It left the black, green and gold six points off fourth with the side currently holding that position, Wasps, having played a game fewer.

And when asked whether Saints' play-off race was run, Boyd said: "I think so.

"Three of the four (Exeter, Bristol and Sale) have always been pretty obvious to me but then there's three or four teams chasing that fourth spot and I think we've probably left ourselves too much work to do now.

"We'll look to find some solutions somewhere else."

Saints had looked on course to secure a morale-boosting win against a largely second-string Exeter side when they moved into a second-half lead.

But the Chiefs, who had been 14-0 up before going 19-14 down, battled back, and they won it thanks to a try from impressive wing Tom O'Flaherty.

"We haven't stopped trying and sometimes you can't buy a trick," Boyd said.

"We made three mistakes that cost us three tries.

"We went in front after half-time and and probably over-managed the game to try to protect the lead.

"I can't fault the effort but when you can't win a trick, you can't win a trick.

"I don't think there was panic.

"We did give away a couple of penalties but I don't think it was panic.

"It's not the game we want to play and at times we got sucked into their game.

"If you look at Exeter's games to date, particularly post-Covid, they haven't made many mistakes.

"They didn't give us much, we just thought if we could get a couple more crumbs we might have been able to convert them.

"They played a pretty predictable game but they played it very well and that's the hallmark of Exeter.

"They've a very good side and that's clearly not their number one side so we've got a pretty big mountain when we go back there to play them in the European quarter-final in a few weeks.

"We've got a couple of games to deal with first (Saints go to Bristol on Tuesday before a trip to Leicester five days later).

"We'll go back and lick our wounds and do the best we can."