Saints 'haven't felt the need' to chase world stars

Instead, the black, green and gold continue to place a large emphasis on the development of players, as shown by their situation at scrum-half.

South Africa ace Cobus Reinach is set to depart the club for Top 14 giants Montpellier, but Saints have not replaced him with a big name.

They have instead opted to add Doncaster Knights No.9 Tom James to their ranks, and he will compete with three other English players, Alex Mitchell, Henry Taylor and Connor Tupai.

And when asked about that, Boyd told the Rugby Paper: "We’re following our mantra of young, English and high potential.

"Cobus has been wonderful for us but he’s made a decision to go to Montpellier and finish his career there and, if I’m brutally honest, if Cobus had said he wanted to sign for another three years here it would have really challenged me around what I would have done with Alex Mitchell because I think he’s a high potential player.

"Henry Taylor’s a good player as well, we’ve got Connor Tupai as a youngster and Tom James has just come in from Doncaster as someone we’ve watched for quite a while.

"He’s got a really good core skill-set and we’re happy we’ve got him, so he’s another who’s English with high potential and we’re well stocked."

Saints' focus has been on holding on to their array of homegrown players, ensuring the likes of Rory Hutchinson and Harry Mallinder do not leave for pastures new.

"We’re pretty happy," Boyd said. "Our key goal was to retain our own talent and backfill it where needed.

"Last year we struggled a bit at scrum time and backfilled that with Owen Franks, and when we were looking for a replacement for Rob Horne we pulled in Matt Proctor, but we haven’t felt the need to go to the top of the drawer this year.

"We’ve had some reasonably high-profile people finishing like Heinrich Brussow and Dylan Hartley but we’ve just replaced these guys internally and are happy with that.

"We haven’t felt the need to go out into the market place for big names."

So is Saints' squad for next season almost complete?

"We’re pretty full to be honest," Boyd said. "We’ve got two or three of our existing guys to tie up and there’s a little bit of uncertainty around Covid-19 where if there’s a major impact on the club financially we may have to reduce our squad by a couple, which might impact on some existing contracts.

"But by and large next season is pretty close to being done and dusted."

Saints' desire to base their squad around talented English, Welsh and Scottish players has drawn plenty of praise.

But are there any downsides to that policy?

"It’s going to be interesting because the downside of having homegrown players is that you can lose them to international duty," Boyd said.

"Rory Hutchinson is now playing for Scotland, Dan Biggar’s with Wales and if you have too many Six Nations players, at key points of the season it can be a real hindrance.

"It’s fantastic that it gets players within your organisation recognised for their abilities and potential but it does put a strain on you there.

"In that respect, having some Australian and Kiwi guys who can’t be selected for their countries is advantageous."