Boyd responds to 'Saints don't want to scrum' comment

Hooper made the comment during Wednesday night's game at Franklin's Gardens, which Bath won 18-3.

The Bath boss was talking to the BT Sport commentary team.

While the away side were keen to keep the ball in the scrum in a bid to win penalties, Saints' style of play revolves around moving things more quickly to feed their backs.

And when asked about Hooper's comment, Boyd said: "I don't understand the comment.

"The scrum for us is the start of a game.

"Our philosophy of our game is playing away from the scrum to attack.

"I might say they don't want to pass - but passing might not be part of their game plan, so I don't know what he's talking about."

When asked whether the scrum was an area of concern after the Bath game, Boyd said: "Not really.

"It was a little bit of an issue on their ball but on our own scrum, when we're in control of the tempo and the duration of the scrum, we had a 100 per cent success rate so we don't have any problem on our scrum.

"The problem we had was that Bath are a big, heavy pack, scrummaging for a long period of time, holding the ball in and forcing penalties from us.

"Earlier in the year (when Saints lost at The Rec), we capitulated, gave up a penalty try and lost the game on the basis of that.

"This time, it was 50 per better but 50 per cent is still not good enough - it needs to be 80 or 90.

"They didn't create very much but won the game comfortably 18-3.

"We created plenty but didn't finish anything and it's incredibly frustrating."

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