Exeter boss Baxter accuses Boyd of playing mind games ahead of Saints' quarter-final

Saints had spent more than a week trying to get EPCR to allow them to bring in another loosehead prop for the match, having lost all four of their senior players in that position to injury.

Finally, on Thursday morning, EPCR changed the rules and stated that Saints could make the move, allowing them to recruit Alex Seville on loan from Gloucester. Seville will join the squad on Friday,

On Wednesday, with EPCR's decision still pending, Boyd pleaded with the Champions Cup organisers to sanction the move, stating his fears about what may happen if they didn't.

He referenced the pressure that would be put on Saints' only fit loosehead, 19-year-old Manny Iyogun, who was forced to play 55 minutes during the defeat at Leicester Tigers last Sunday.

But Baxter said: “We made it clear to Northampton when they contacted us that we would support them in their attempt to register an extra player and we did that.

“I think some of it is mind games, if I am honest, and a scenario that potentially isn’t there.”

Boyd had said that Leicester's experienced prop Dan Cole was 'kind to him on a couple of occasions' when talking about the battle Iyogun faced at Welford Road.

And he added that 'the attitude Exeter take in the scrums will determine whether they go to uncontested' this weekend.

But Baxter said: “What does that comment mean? That Northampton will go to uncontested scrums but not if we do not push?

"It was a weird comment all round, made to influence.

"It is a quarter-final, not a pre-season friendly, but EPCR made a sensible decision.

“We played Northampton a couple of weeks ago in the Premiership at Franklin’s Gardens.

"We had a tighthead (Alfie Petch) on the bench who came on (after an hour) not having played in the league before.

"I cannot remember there being anything in the press about there being an issue over a 20-year-old guy playing his first Premiership minute.

“We do not know how long Alex Seville has been training with them.

"He came on for Gloucester against us last week so he is more than capable of surviving against our front row.”