How Northampton Saints rose again in the Premiership under the miracle-workings of Chris Boyd
Win at top-of-the-table Exeter Chiefs on Saturday, a prospect which would have been beyond distant just a few months ago, and Boyd’s team will have claimed the final play-off spot
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Your support makes all the difference.It wouldn’t be the greatest comeback since Lazarus but if Northampton Saints do secure a Premiership play-off spot tomorrow it would provide more evidence of Chris Boyd’s miracle-working capabilities.
The former Hurricanes boss, relatively unknown on these shores before it was announced he would replace former director of rugby Jim Mallinder, took over a club this summer which had completely lost its way after winning the Premiership title in 2015.
Complacent, overconfident and dysfunctional, Northampton Saints was a pale shadow of the club it had once been.
“On the back of winning the Premiership, people downed tools and thought we had the winning formula,” said Northampton’s former England flanker at the tail-end of last season. “It’s been a slippery slope for a number of years.”
A record losing streak in 2017 saw Saints plunge to 11th in the league while a heavy home defeat to Ospreys in front of a half-full Franklins Gardens before Christmas proved the final straw for Saints’ board, who sacked Mallinder after 11 years in charge.
The ensuing months under the interim watch of Alan Dickens were often painful as long-serving members of the backroom staff, including Mallinder’s most trusted lieutenant Dorian West, were moved along.
Boyd’s arrival in the summer, along with the appointment of former Worcester Warriors attack coach Sam Vesty, prompted a significant shift in emphasis for a club which had spent the previous season’s on Mallinder and West’s watch dogmatically sticking to a forward dominated kicking game which bore less and less fruit as years ticked by.
With Dan Biggar replacing Stephen Myler at fly half, Boyd also had a tactically astute No10 with a better passing game than his predecessor while scrum-half Cobus Reinach, another Mallinder signing who hardly had the chance to play under him, has been pivotal to the east-midlander’s renaissance.
The results did not come immediately under Boyd, but something clicked around Christmas and since then Saints have been one of the form horses in the country. Win at top-of-the-table Exeter Chiefs on Saturday, a prospect which would have been beyond distant just a few months ago, and Boyd’s team will have claimed the final play-off spot.
Like a gap-year student exploring Africa, Saints have found themselves again.
“We know we’re not going to come up against other teams and dominate them physically and grind them down,” Biggar said. “But we do have a team full of players like Cobus who are incredibly skilful, quick and athletic and those are the strengths you have to play to.”
Reinach’s on Friday saw him named as one of six contenders for the Gallagher Premiership player of the season award and he will again be pivotal on Saturday as Saints seek to keep fifth-placed Harlequins from sneaking past them and securing fourth spot.
Paul Gustard’s side play eighth-placed Wasps, who can also salvage the wreckage of their season if they claim a bonus-point win which would put them in contention for a top six finish and the prospect of playing European Champions Cup rugby next season.
Sixth-placed Bath travel to 11th-placed Leicester, whose struggles this season have been well-documented, while seventh-placed Sale will also fancy their chances of a securing Champions Cup rugby next season when they face Gloucester, who have long since tied up third place behind Exeter and Saracens.
But it is at Sandy Park where most eyes will be. Saints have not reached the play offs since 2015 and in that time Chiefs have made four successive finals, winning one of them.
They have never lost a home semi final and after a month of resting and rotating his squad Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter has picked a fully loaded starting line up to face Saints in anticipation of another home semi-final a week later.
Jack Nowell starts at full back, Alex Cuthbert on the wing and Henry Slade in midfield. Chiefs could counter Saints attack with some fluid rugby of their own.
“It’s probably the first time in three or four weeks where we have been able to give the squad some real clarity on what we are expecting of them,” said Baxter.
“We are going to pick our best, fit 23 for this game, and we’re expecting to see those players picked for the weekend get ready to play in a Premiership semi-final.”
The odds are against Northampton but they are at the races when it matters most; at the business end of the season. That has not been the case for several years. Last season, it seemed unthinkable. Northampton’s story is both uplifting for its vigour and unexpected in its haste.
Under Boyd, the sleeping giants have awoken.
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