Boyd takes the blame for 'sanitised' Saints after Wasps brought the noise

The problem for Saints was that it was all coming from the opposition camp.

The Wasps replacements and staff could be heard celebrating loudly whenever anything went the way of the men in yellow and black.

And it seemed to spur the team on as they secured an impressive 34-21 Gallagher Premiership win at the Gardens.

This week, Saints boss Chris Boyd and prop Paul Hill have been having their say on the atmosphere Wasps managed to create with no fans present.

Hill said: "The crowd thing (the fact the game was played behind closed doors) was definitely weird and no one took it lightly.

"The noise that Wasps brought is something we maybe didn't consider.

"You've got to add that energy with no crowd and it could be to do with which staff you've got with you and who you've got on the bench, stuff like that.

"The fans are an element of the game - it's why people talk about home advantage - and did we use that as best as we could? Maybe not.

"Did it lose us the game? Probably not. But it might have helped to swing it our way.

"I'm happy with whatever but boys should be a bit louder and on the pitch we need to support each other more and celebrate things when they go well.

"We could have done that better at the weekend."

Boyd took some of the blame for it.

The Saints boss said: "We sanitised our game a little bit and we were trying to go the other way and be a bit disciplined and more controlled and more organised.

"As a consequence we didn't compete terribly hard at the breakdown and we paid the price for that.

"They certainly had more enthusiasm around their game than we did and I put my hand up because it was my fault and it won't happen again."

So has Boyd told his replacements and non-playing staff to make a lot of noise when Saints travel to face London Irish at the Twickenham Stoop on Saturday?

"No, because we're only taking our team down there - we won't have any extras," he said.

"We'll have to generate our own enthusiasm on the field."

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