Boyd knows Saints must get back on track after 'unacceptable' finish to last season

And Boyd says it is now time for his team to lay some foundations as they prepare to start a new campaign tonight.

Saints go to Sale Sharks for a tricky season opener, having lost 13 of the past 14 matches they have played.

Boyd's side were sitting top of the table when they last travelled to Sale, in December 2019, but a horrible run of form in 2020 proved to be their undoing.

They went from finishing fourth in the 2018/19 season - their first under Boyd - to eighth last time round.

And when asked about his ambitions for the campaign ahead, Boyd said: "We just want to play good footy.

"Year two was a total disappointment really. We went from fourth in year one to eighth in year two, and that's unacceptable.

"We just want to get the foundations of our game back again and play some code and do the best we can."

But with such a short turnaround between seasons - Saints' most recent competitive match was against Sale on September 29 - have the black, green and gold had enough time to put their barren run to bed?

"The saving grace (towards the end of last season) was that in patches we played reasonably well but in other patches we were terrible so we know the recipe is there and we've just got to mix it up the right way," Boyd said.

"The end of last season was really disappointing and there's a bit of a resolve that it's not good enough and the only people who can do something about it is us.

"We've got a pretty tricky start with two of the top five sides (Sale and Bristol Bears) and Harlequins who had a good finish so it is a tricky start."

And Boyd added: "In some people's minds it's almost a continuation - not from a scoreline point of view - because we've had so little chance to go back into a foundation phase and reset ourselves physically, tactically and mentally, it's just a refinement of the past so that's different.

"The weather is different, the prospect of the season starting at this time is different and the world is different so you've just got to embrace that and accept it for what it is around your attitude and your choices.

"We've kept boxing on and the boys have been really good actually."

But Boyd knows how important a win or two during the formative stages of the season would be for a Saints side who have barely sampled the winning feeling since the end of January.

"High performance anything is about winning so we need to win some games of football, there's no doubt about that," he said.

"Ideally, you win the game and you play well but the world is seldom that perfect.

"Right now, we'd be happy to play poorly and win but that isn't going to happen often because the Premiership is so tight by nature.

"You know you can't play badly and win.

"You can't drop your guard for 40 minutes and then play well for 40 and win.

"We've got to be consistently more accurate both with our skills and our decisions over longer periods of time, and that's within the 80 minutes in a game and within a week, within a month and within a year.

"Consistency of application is a key one for us."

So how have Saints spent the extremely short off-season?

"We just sat down and worked out what we thought we could do fairly well and needed to tick over and that stuff we would just tick over," Boyd said.

"We then looked at what we needed to get better at to make a difference to get us performing well enough to win and we've concentrated on three or four things to make sure that we get better at the things that were killing us."

Saints struggled with Sale's physicality back in September.

And Boyd said: "They're obviously big and physical.

"They came here at the end of last season needing five points to stay in with a chance of being in the top four and when we went back and had a look at that game, we were beaten but not soundly beaten.

"There were moments in that game that we were on top, and there were moments when we were well not.

"We made two or three crucial little errors, both judgmental and skill execution, that killed us.

"They scored five tries and three of them you would say were pretty soft and we didn't make them work hard enough.

"We've got to get better at making teams earn their points so it's a really tough start, Sale at the AJ Bell Stadium.

"It's a tough assignment for round one but we embrace it and we'll be going up there to do the best we can.

"It's a physical contact game and you've got to play the game that way and we're very happy to play that game, it's just when you engage, for how long and where you do it and when you move to somewhere else.

"If you're a Tiger tank you'll behave a bit differently to a Sherman."

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper when you do your weekly shop.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you