'The second 50 we were rotten': Northampton boss Chris Boyd rubbishes his team's win

Chris Boyd was not impressed with the performance of Northampton despite a 22-17 win over Wasps at the Ricoh Arena making it three successive victories in the Gallagher Premiership for the Saints. The visitors built up a 22-0 interval lead with tries from Shaun Adendorff, Sam Matavesi and Taqele Naiyaravoro, to which James Grayson added two conversions and a penalty, as Wasps had forwards Kieran Brookes and James Gaskell sent to the sin-bin.

But Wasps staged a spirited rally in the second half to run Saints close with Rob Miller and Tommy Taylor scoring their tries. Jimmy Gopperth converted one with Jacob Umaga adding a penalty and a conversion. But Northampton director of rugby Boyd was far from happy and said: “In the first 30 minutes we were reasonably good, the second 50 we were rotten.

“We were pretty decent in taking advantage of them going down to 13 men but after that, we were incredibly poor as our decision-making went to pieces and individuals went off score. It’s a good time to review that game as we took a backward step after last week’s good win at Gloucester.

“It was a classic game of two halves as we had the rub of the green and the penalties in our favour in the first half but after the interval, it was a role reversal. After a very poor run of results, I believe we’ve just about dug ourselves out of a hole but a winning run of three games is not a major achievement.

“We could have easily lost that game in the final moments but our defence in keeping them out just before half-time was pivotal.”

Wasps fell to a second home defeat in succession with their director of rugby Lee Blackett making seven changes from last week’s 49-17 mauling at the hands of Harlequins. Blackett said: “We were miles better than last week. We had greater speed and intent but our execution wasn’t very good. We easily had enough opportunities to score but didn’t take them and in the end, our ill-discipline proved costly.

"It’s frustrating as the 14 points we conceded when we were down to 13 men had a big effect on the game and they scored their points a bit easier than we did. It would be great if we had a few of our international players back but their absence gives other players opportunities to impress.”