'Remarkable' recovery needed for Saints to slay Exeter

The black, green and gold go to Sandy Park for the Champions Cup quarter-final having lost 10 of their past 12 matches.

And they will be taking on an Exeter side who are clear at the top of the Gallagher Premiership, having already won their Champions Cup pool.

"This is really preparation for next season now," Boyd said, having seen Saints suffer a hugely disappointing 28-24 defeat to Leicester Tigers at Welford Road last weekend.

"We're certainly not going to any play-offs in the Premiership and we'd have to have a remarkable turnaround to continue in the European theatre.

"We need to prepare for the start of next season and having two or three poor performances from now on doesn't help us get going.

"We need to get our heads together and find a way."

Recent form has been tough to take for Saints supporters who had seen their side work incredibly hard to emerge from the Champions Cup pool stages.

The black, green and gold may have lost to Leinster twice, but they doubled up against both Lyon and Benetton.

Back in January, when a superb second-half showing saw them claim their first win in France since 2011, things were looking so rosy.

Saints were chasing a top-two finish in the Premiership and had a quarter-final at Europe's top table to look forward to.

But how things have changed in this Covid-19-affected year.

They are now seventh in the Premiership, out of contention for a play-off place, having picked up just 12 points from their past 10 league games.

And Boyd said: "There's a degree of self-responsibility and I don't think there's a person sitting in the changing room who would reflect with personal pride on what happened last weekend.

"It was a performance I would describe as flat and there's no excuse for having a bad performance when we've got our best side back together again.

"In a local derby at Welford Road, we needed to get back on the horse in preparation for Exeter.

"Maybe we put too much pressure on ourselves and when you can't buy a trick, you can't buy a trick."