'We're not playing consistently well enough' - Boyd reacts to Saints' defeat at Gloucester

The black, green and gold, who had lost late on against Sale Sharks and Exeter Chiefs in their past two matches, were hit by a stirring comeback by Gloucester at Kingsholm.

The hosts roared back from 27-14 down to secure a bonus-point 35-30 success that boosted their Gallagher Premiership play-off bid.

It put another spanner in the works for Saints, and they will have so many regrets after suffering four successive league losses.

Boyd said: "The only consolation, if there can be a consolation, is that we're actually playing reasonably well for longish periods of time, but it's the same as last week in terms of big moments, small margins.

"We lost concentration in a lineout that cost us seven points early in the game and then, just before half-time, with a decent lead, we let through a soft try.

"We came back and took control of the game for a long period of time, but then a couple of decisions at the back end cost us territory and let their drive come into the game, which is the strongest part of their game and they're the best in the competition at it.

"We knew if they got into that space it was going to be hard to defend - and it was, especially with a man down (due to Manny Iyogun's sin-binning).

"We paid the price at the end.

Boyd added: "If you're going to lose, you'd rather lose playing some decent footy, but we're not playing consistently well enough to win games, which is really frustrating.

"I 100 per cent can't fault the players for the effort they're putting in - they're trying really hard - we've just got to concentrate for longer periods of time and get ourselves going again.

"I don't think it's a confidence issue.

"All of the games we've lost recently are different and it's not one specific thing - it's bits here and there."

The losing bonus point gathered at Gloucester pushed Saints up to eighth in the Premiership, but they are now 10 points adrift of fourth.

And Boyd isn't keen to look at the bigger picture, instead preferring to keep the focus on the next game, at home to Wasps next Sunday.

"If Mitch (Alex Mitchell) could have put (Courtnall) Skosan away a little bit, we might have got over and won the game here, but we're just not putting 80 minutes of rugby out there," Boyd said.

"There are some really good chunks but we've got to learn to close games out and finish them off.

"Nothing changes - at the end of the day, whenever we walk out in a Saints jersey, we want to play well enough to win.

"The boys are hurting like hell in the changing room and we've got to find a way to get ourselves up on Tuesday to play Wasps at home.

"You can't worry about the consequences overall - you've just got to concentrate on very short chunks.

"The next battle is Wasps at home. They beat us in the first game and we need to play better."