'We need to stop being the victim', says Saints boss Boyd after defeat to Harlequins

The black, green and gold gave away a huge amount of penalties as they lost a 21-7 lead and eventually took nothing from their trip to English rugby HQ.

Alex Dombrandt scored his hat-trick try from the final play of the game to snatch a losing bonus point from Saints' grasp.

And Boyd was disappointed with his side's defending, particularly in a first half that saw them ship 26 points.

"The first half was attack with optional defence," Boyd said.

"Both sets of coaches will be disappointed with the defending because it was tit-for-tat, try after try.

"While that might be a good spectacle, it wasn't as a coaching group.

"We continue our journey and we need to be smart.

"We need to stop being the victim, roll our sleeves up and get on with being a little better than that."

Boyd added: "We got on the wrong side of Mr Barnes and conceded some 22 penalties.

"You can't give any side that many platforms to launch from.

"We were in the game but we were annoyed about the try before half-time.

"We kicked a penalty but then we didn't really control the last 30 minutes."

Harlequins secured plenty of penalties at the breakdown as they moved back into the Premiership top-four with a bonus-point win in the match dubbed 'Big Game 13'.

And when asked about Saints' breakdown struggles on the day, Boyd said: "We've been generally very good in that space.

"I think there is a different interpretation from Wayne because he's an international referee and we didn't adapt particularly well.

"He was brutally hard on the tackler not rolling away.

"We contest the ball, as do Harlequins, but they're the least penalised in the league and we're almost the most so we've got to do better at that."