Saracens defeat a lesson for youthful Saints

The black, green and gold looked to be on the way to a humbling defeat when Saracens stormed into a 36-3 lead.

But, to their credit, Saints kept going, with Reece Marshall and skipper Lewis Ludlam both scoring during the second period to narrow the deficit.

Overall, it was a difficult day for a Saints side that contained a plethora of inexperienced players, but Boyd was pleased with how they responded after Saracens flew ahead.

"There are games you consider bonus games and if you can get a victory against Saracens at Allianz Park it is a real bonus," Boyd said.

"They were too good for us in the first 40 minutes. They really applied a lot of pressure and we battled to get our game going because we couldn't get a steady supply of ball.

"Hats off to them because they delivered a really good first 40.

"On the other side of it, I was happy that we knuckled down and didn't go away in the last 40 minutes.

"There are some really good learnings for us as a group collectively.

"We've got a young group that is full of enthusiasm but without a supply of quality ball, it makes it very difficult for them to impose their game.

"The set piece was always going to be a bit of a battle, but the area we would liked to have done better in was the breakdown.

"They were pretty hard on the ball in many ways and we didn't adapt to the referee's interpretation as well as they did.

"They certainly got the rub of the green in and around the ball."