Saints set for 'pretty aggressive' defensive review after Sale defeat

Chris Boyd says there will be a 'pretty aggressive review' of the defence after Saints' defeat at Sale Sharks on Friday night.
Chris Boyd saw his Saints side suffer an opening night defeat at SaleChris Boyd saw his Saints side suffer an opening night defeat at Sale
Chris Boyd saw his Saints side suffer an opening night defeat at Sale

Boyd's side were beaten 32-23 in the Gallagher Premiership opener at the AJ Bell Stadium, despite largely dominating the game after going 17-0 down inside the first 20 minutes.

Sale eventually racked up four tries to bag a bonus point, which was a real disappointment for a Saints side who felt some of those efforts were avoidable.

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Boyd said: "Two of their tries were from signature plays that we had practiced for the past week and we knew how to defend.

"In both cases, people made critical reads and made mistakes on both of those tries so we have to be hard on ourselves that when you know what's coming, you've got to get yourself in the right position and do the right things.

"It's disappointing and it will lead to a pretty aggressive review that we knew those two plays were coming and we still failed to defend them."

Saints had pulled back to just six points down with six minutes to go, but they conceded a penalty just seconds after claiming the kick-off.

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Rob du Preez landed the kick to take Sale nine points clear and, ultimately, deny Saints a losing bonus point that was the least their efforts deserved.

"We said that if we were there or thereabouts with 20 minutes to go, we might have been able to sneak a win up here, which has been very elusive for us over the years," said Boyd, who saw Saints suffer their fifth successive AJ Bell Stadium league defeat.

"But it was just those little moments that we lost, two kick-offs we failed to control, that last kick-off when we came within six points.

"We conceded and you can make excuses all day, but in that situation at the end, the guy who was playing at No.8 and the guy who was playing at 12 had not fulfilled those roles because it wasn't how we trained, and that was because a couple of injuries during the game.

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"It was disappointing we weren't able to tidy those key areas up."

Though they were beaten, Saints were far from deflated, lifting hopes that they can finally bring the winning feeling back to Franklin's Gardens when they host Harlequins next weekend.

They were much improved in many areas, including among the forwards.

And Boyd said: "The scrum and the lineout were both good.

"We obviously had one overthrow that was a bit costly, but overall the contest on the ball was pretty good and that area was encouraging.

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"At the Gardens six or seven weeks ago (when Sale beat Saints 34-14), we were outmuscled and we didn't want to come here and for that to happen, and by and large there wasn't a lack of willigness or intent.

"We just weren't accurate enough in key moments."

When asked who impressed him, Boyd said: "I don't think anybody really stood out - it was a good all-round performance.

"Tom Wood toiled away pretty hard but you'd be hard pushed to say anyone was outstanding.

"I thought we were good across the board without being brilliant."

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