Saints 'fresh and ready to go' ahead of Sunday showdown

The black, green and gold have not played since March 6, when they won 16-10 at Worcester Warriors.

Boyd is set to have close to a full squad to choose from against Wasps this weekend, with the exception of Alex Waller (Achilles) and Tom Wood (pulmonary embolism).

Ollie Sleightholme is a slight doubt with a hamstring injury, while one other unnamed player is unlikely to feature due to testing positive for Covid-19 earlier this week.

But Saints are largely in good shape, having played an inter-squad pre-season themselves at a scorching Gardens last Friday.

Boyd said: "We were scheduled last Friday to play a warm-up game against Worcester but they didn't want that because they didn't want to expose the whole league prematurely to a breakout between different clubs and I understand that completely.

"My first choice after that with the length of lay-off would have been to have a game but as it turned out we had a scenario where we could have a full hit-out at Franklin's Gardens with two teams and referee and they went through their bit.

"It gave our stadium staff a chance to get through a regulatory requirement for Stage 3 so everyone knows what it's going to be like.

"With the stepping up and ramping up of physicality over the past four weeks, despite the fact the boys didn't really enjoy playing against each other last week, it was 100 per cent full on.

"It was hot and it was a good hit-out.

"We had a forward session on Wednesday with the two forward packs going hammer and tongs at each other and we're now winding it down for Sunday.

"But the boys have been really good and I don't think there's a lot missing in terms of physicality so the thing they're going to battle most with if it's hot is the running work.

"I don't think we're going to be far away and we're certainly fresh and ready to go."

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