'We learned a bit about some people' - Boyd reflects on Saints' spirited showing at Leinster

The black, green and gold had fallen 14-0 down early on at the RDS Arena, but they fought back and were just 17-14 down before Leinster scored again on the stroke of half-time.

The Irish giants grabbed their bonus-point effort two minutes into the second half, but Saints kept going and a Nick Isiekwe try gave them renewed hope.

Leinster eventually closed the game out to bag a 35-19 victory, their second maximum haul in as many Champions Cup matches.

It was a 12th successive defeat for Saints in all competitions, but it was far from dispiriting ahead of the Boxing Day home game against Worcester Warriors.

"One defensive error on the edge cost us seven points and then we got a scrum wrong and it's 14 points," Boyd said.

"In the circumstances we were happy with how we came back and we learned a bit about some people.

"The performance was as important as the result for us.

"If we'd come here and got pasted 60-0 and played really poorly it might have had an impact on but we've got half a dozen guys to come back into the team next week.

"We'll have a look back at this game and Worcester on Boxing Day is an important match for us from a league point of view."

Saints may have shipped five tries, but they largely competed well with Leinster, especially at the breakdown.

And Boyd said: "We made some defensive lapses but generally the intent was good.

"It was quite windy and quite difficult to play.

"Both sides were pretty aggressive in the linespeed.

"We haven't lacked intent all year - the attitude of the players is absolutely not missing, we've just been inaccurate for periods of time.

"Our challenge is to be more consistent for longer periods of time.

"We know we have the ability but we just drop off that concentration and it costs us.

"I looked at the Leinster side that was announced and they had a massive number of caps.

"We had a couple of guys who were making European debuts and there were five or six guys who had fewer than 10 games for the club.

"You can't replace experience and it's a really good squad they've got."