Saints release statement as they hit back at comments from Premiership Rugby's Winstanley

Saints have refuted comments made by Phil Winstanley (left)

Winstanley was on BT Sport's Gallagher Premiership Tonight show, talking about why Saints were forced to forfeit their season finale at Gloucester this afternoon.

The black, green and gold only had two of their 14 front row players available due to a combination of injuries and close contact with last Tuesday's opponents Sale Sharks, who have registered 19 positive Covid-19 results.

CEO Mark Darbon has previously said that Saints were not allowed to register more men to complete the fixture at Kingsholm.

Winstanley today claimed Saints 'had the ability to bring in more players', but Saints have hit back at that suggestion.

A Saints statement read: "We refute the comments made by a PRL representative on this evening’s BT Sport Gallagher Premiership Tonight show, who stated that, “Northampton had the ability to bring in more players; they could have registered some.”

"As previously communicated, as soon as we were aware of the situation, we asked for permission to register loan players beyond the normal deadline in order that we could attempt to complete our fixture against Gloucester, as planned, on Sunday.

"We were advised that this dispensation would not be granted. We therefore had no option to bring in additional players as cover."