Joining Saints was a ‘great decision’ for boss Boyd

Boyd has been widely praised for the work he has done since arriving at Saints from Super Rugby side the Hurricanes in 2018.

He steered the black, green and gold to a fourth-placed finish in the Gallagher Premiership during his first season in charge, while also reaching the European Challenge Cup quarter-finals and masterminding glory in the Premiership Rugby Cup.

Boyd has carried on that development of the team during the current campaign, with Saints currently fourth in the league and in the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup, in which they are due to travel to Exeter Chiefs.

And when asked about how he has enjoyed life at Northampton, Boyd told the Rugby Paper: “It’s been great.

“Covid-19 is an unfortunate reality but it was a great decision to come to Northampton.

“I wanted to come to the Premiership and when I first started looking Northampton wasn’t my first option because there was another club looking to change their DoR (director of rugby) and Northampton were not.

“But as those discussions went along Northampton made a decision to make a change (Jim Mallinder left in December 2017) and, having been here before in 2003/4 when Wayne Smith was in charge, I remembered the passion of the town.

“I’ve got to say that the owners, the board, the CEO and all the staff have been nothing but a pleasure to deal with and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the passion of the spectators.

“One of the disadvantages of Super Rugby is you’re often playing in international stadiums with just 5,000-6,000 people inside them, but here they’ve got the balance between spectators and size of ground right.

“There are not many grounds you’d say are not nice to visit and by and large they all have their own characteristics and the crowds are passionate.

“From a rugby perspective, any team can tip over another, which is exciting, and it’s helped that we’ve played some decent footy at times and everybody’s been positive.

“I haven’t come across any personal agendas, infighting or squabbling like some other clubs appear to have, everybody here is on the same line of being the best they can be.”

So does Boyd see himself extending the three-year deal that started during the summer of 2018?

He said: “The only thing that will lure my wife and I away from Northampton is the desire to eventually go back home to New Zealand and spend more time with our family and friends there, but there’s still quite a lot we’d like to get ticked off in Europe.”