'Mixed emotions' for Boyd after Saints beat Worcester

The black, green and gold won at Franklin's Gardens for the first time since January, earning a bonus point Gallagher Premiership success.

A penalty try followed by scores from Alex Mitchell, Dan Biggar and Mike Haywood got the job done as Saints ended a 12-match losing streak.

But though he was happy with the result, Boyd wasn't totally satisfied with the performance.

"It's mixed emotions really," Boyd said. "Obviously we're pleased to get a couple of monkeys off our back and get five points in the Premiership, which is really important, but the reality is that we played better last week and probably the week before as well.

"I don't want to be the Christmas grinch - we were certainly pleased to get the five points at home, but it was far from as good as we can play.

"The thing that I've been most proud about really is that Covid came in and the club was very united around that.

"Everyone took pay-cuts, like many of the other clubs did, and there were difficulties around training and things like that and we coped with it really well post-Covid.

"We just didn't play particularly well and got ourselves into a hole but we've started coming back to find the light, but one swallow doesn't make a summer so we know we've got to find a way to back that up.

"I've been incredibly proud of the way the boys have stuck together - they're a good crew and I really enjoy working with them.

"We've got to put another win on top of that."

Saints seemed to rediscover some of the style they played with during their more successful times at the start of 2020.

And Boyd said: "There has been frustration that (style) has deserted us and we've been urging the guys to play with a level of sensibility but be more couragous.

"There has been quite a evolution in the Premiership in the past two years and there has been nowhere near as much space as there was two years ago.

"We probably took a few teams by surprise a few years ago and all these things go in cycles.

"The way the referee interprets the breakdown has an impact on how much time and space you get and we've been a bit guilty of poor skill execution under pressure.

"We're not getting excited but we're certrainly very pleased to have a late Christmas present."