Saints eager to play their part in keeping supporters' spirits up

With the country currently in another national lockdown, elite sport has been allowed to continue, to the great relief of the many people who love it.

Saints have unfortunately been without a game since Boxing Day as Covid-19 complications forced two of their Gallagher Premiership fixtures to be cancelled, while the Champions Cup has been suspended, meaning matches against Leinster and Bordeaux were also called off.

But the black, green and gold are set to be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Kingsholm to face Gloucester.

And Boyd knows how important it is for fans stuck at home to be able to watch their team on the television.

"One of the benefits to society at the moment is the fact that high performance sport, albeit without crowds, is still going ahead," Boyd said.

"So the rugby supporters, the football supporters, the darts supporters, the tennis supporters, the cricket supporters, whatever they are, at least it still gives them something to hang their hat on.

"It's not the same for all people because not everybody enjoys sport, but for those people who watching sport forms a very key part of their life, the fact we're still able to play gives a degree of stability to the general population around that.

"We'd be in a far worse situation as a community if there was no professional sport at the moment.

"The players have a good degree of perspective on that because they are still able to come to work and they do feel one of the contributions they can make to Covid society is to keep doing what they're doing.

"The pressure on them is not what they do inside our bubble which is a secure environment, it's what they do outside it when they're away.

"We are relentlessly talking to players to make sure we don't have any issues around Covid and guys have to keep being squeaky clean because we can't afford to have a mistake."

Boyd has been enjoying watching some cricket, including India's recent Test series win in Australia.

And he added: "It's a really good example and how many people's sanity was preserved during the past month because they were able to sit at home and watch the cricket?

"That sounds very meaningless and futile but it's such an important part of keeping society going and giving it stability at the moment."

Boyd was asked how tough it is for his team to function during a global pandemic.

He said: "The thing about it is that inside our bubble, it's a very controlled environment.

"The players come into the car park one way, go into the changing room one way, they get tested, they have to fill out an app and we're socially distanced in the gym so we only have fewer than 10 in there at a time and it's very, very sterile and very controlled.

"What is hard for the players, like for everyone else, is when you go outside that controlled environment and you have to be very careful with that.

"Mentally it's been very tough because players love to play and train and get on with business but it's just what it is and they feel they're in a privileged situation to be able to come to work."

Boyd says the thing he and his players miss the most is the social aspect of pre-pandemic life.

"By nature the bit that people miss the most is the social component and we haven't sat down as a group and relaxed and had a beer for 12 months," he said.

"That ability to just relax in other people's company is really tough and we haven't done anything like that in such a long time.

"We used to sit down and have our lunch together, now you have to take it away with you.

"Life has changed a lot in terms of social cohesion but we have a lot of electronic groups and a lot of banter so there is a very social component in that and it helps to bridge the gap."

The absence of supporters at matches continues to be felt, with Saints having only played in front of fans at Franklin's Gardens once in close to a year.

"We only had 2,000 people at the Bordeaux game (in December) and it felt like two million - it made so much difference," Boyd said.

"The guys who love the drama of the contest - and different people get stimulated by different things - they have found it really tough in stadiums with no fans.

"But you've got to adapt, get on with it and do things in different ways."

Saints' opponents this weekend, Gloucester, currently sit bottom of the Premiership standings having played all of their scheduled matches.

Other teams have seen games cancelled and have been given points by Premiership Rugby because of that.

And when asked whether he felt it would be fair to scrap relegation this season because of the impact of Covid-19, Boyd said: " It would be grossly unfair if a side got relegated because of an allocation of Covid points.

"If one team finishes 20 points adrift at the bottom you could probably say they wouldn't have been impacted either way, but the impact of training and the cohesion of the clubs probably says a common sense approach during this year, means relegation would be a bitter pill to swallow for a club that doesn't think it deserves it."

Saints CEO Mark Darbon recently spoke to this publication about the club's recruitment, admitting they are in 'advanced talks' with their targets.

When asked about recruitment, Boyd said: "There's a couple of things that are significant in that the way the league salary cap was structured 12 months ago meant a lot of the clubs have done a lot of their recruitment and retention in advance so a lot of clubs are quite full already.

"We're starting to see a dribble of players going here and there but they're not headline stories in the current environment.

"If you start comparing it to stories about the Lions tour going ahead, safety in the environment, relegation and things like that, those are way bigger stories at the moment."