‘Saints’ win was like a box of chocolates’ – Chris Boyd
Northampton Saints director of rugby Chris Boyd borrowed a line from the movie Forrest Gump when he described his team’s victorious performance against Bath as being “like a box of chocolates”.
Northampton crossed for six tries during their 40-19 triumph at Franklin’s Gardens and had secured their bonus-point before half-time.
South Africans leading the way
Saints crossed for six tries, with South African duo Juarno Augustus and Courtnall Skosan scoring a brace apiece, but Bath were competitive for long periods of the match.
While Boyd was pleased with some areas of the home side’s display, his overall reaction was mixed.
“I’m happy with the five points,” he said. “But it was a bit like the old box of chocolates: some of it was good and some of it was atrocious. There was the odd sour lolly in there.
“The whole game was frustrating. The crowd were getting frustrated with how slow the set-pieces were to get formed.
“I don’t think Bath were in any particular hurry to play the game.
“We try to play the game with tempo but we were guilty of giving away penalties in that middle third that led to us conceding a couple of soft tries that we’re pretty grumpy about.”
And Boyd believes there is plenty to improve on despite the victory.
“There’s plenty of work to do,” he added. “If people are going to score tries against you, you want them to have to earn them.
“We gave them let-outs through the middle third into our defensive area and it was too easy for them to score.
“It’s an area of our game that we need to work on.”
Opposite number Stuart Hooper bemoaned Bath’s bad luck.
The visitors were forced into multiple changes both before and during the first half due to illness and injury.
As they were struggling for rhythm, the Saints took full advantage, racking up a 28-12 half-time lead before condemning Bath to a ninth loss in nine Premiership games this season.
“I’ve never known anything like it – there’s bump after bump,” said Hooper.
“We lost Josh McNally in the warm-up and then lost our nine and 10 in the first half of the game.
“It’s too early to tell how they all are and we’ll wait to see how they are through the week. We had a huge list of people who weren’t available to play.
“Northampton got a couple of early tries, it was a couple of poor moments from us and it put us on the back foot.
“What I won’t question is the fight and determination of the guys. I can’t speak highly enough of players like Tom De Glanville, Max Ojomoh, Sam Underhill.
“There was an opportunity to come here but it changes when we lost players. There were moments when we could have got close but it wasn’t to be.”
George Skivington hails Gloucester’s consistency
Meanwhile, George Skivington praised the consistency his Gloucester players are building after they sealed a deserved 27-10 Premiership victory over Bristol Bears on Friday.
The Cherry and Whites ended a run of five successive Premiership losses against the Bears and, in doing so, claimed bragging rights from an intense West Country derby.
The bonus-point victory means Gloucester move into fourth place in the Premiership standings, three points ahead of Northampton Saints, who face bottom-placed Bath on Saturday, while Bristol are languishing in 10th position.