Boyd issues apology to Saints supporters

The black, green and gold finished the year on a high on Boxing Day, bagging a bonus-point 29-10 win against Worcester Warriors.

It was their first success since August and they had only won two matches after earning victories in the opening three matches of 2020.

It means Saints' record in all competitions during the past 12 months was played 23, won six.

And Boyd said: "We've had a pretty lean period and I want to say merry Christmas to all of our supporters and apologise for 2020 - it's been far too lean a spell.

"We know that one swallow doesn't make a summer but for us to go out and get five critical points against Worcester was a good Christmas present.

"I think we played better against Leinster and even against Bordeaux but we have been trending up.

"All the measures we've taken with our game around our defensive accuracy and systems errors and things like that have all been trending in the right direction.

"The big thing for me is that the boys have stayed really committed to the jersey and the club - they've felt the pain collectively and they've tried really hard.

"We just hadn't put the performances on the field to get the outcome but we've started digging ourselves out of the hole, inch by inch.

"We've got to keep doing it because if we don't back it up it's a waste.

"We've continued to prepare well and if you look at this season, we've had reasonably decent performances against Sale and Bristol.

"We had a poor performance against Harlequins and were outplayed by three or four guys with about 1,000 caps between them.

"We know what we need to do, we just need to be more consistent.

"We're creating plenty of opportunities - we've just got to get hungrier and tougher at turning them into points."