Saints boss Boyd knows World Cup stars will transform Tigers

Chris Boyd is setting his sights on Saturday's game against Leicester

Tigers travel to Saints this Saturday having won just one of their four Gallagher Premiership matches so far this season.

But they welcomed back the likes of George Ford and Manu Tuilagi as they won their Challenge Cup opener against Pau 41-20.

And Tigers backed that big win up with a 14-11 victory at Cardiff Blues last Saturday.

They will now hope to kick-start their league campaign by beating a Saints team who have won three of their four Premiership matches this season.

And Boyd said: "We started doing our homework on Leicester last week and we felt they played really well against Pau with their England players back.

"It's a completely different kettle of fish and it's going to be a tough game.

"They're struggling for points but they've had half of their team come back and they're all quality players, for sure."

Saints were without several players for their 35-32 win at Benetton last Saturday, with the likes of Courtney Lawes (hamstring) and David Ribbans (back) missing out.

Taqele Naiyaravoro and Tom Wood were among the players rested.

And when asked after the game in Treviso on Saturday about availability for this weekend, Boyd said: "Courtney just tweaked a hamstring on Thursday so he could be available for this weekend.

"I can't really enlighten you on any of the injuries just yet because we haven't had contact while we were here.

"Taqele could have played but from an injury point of view there's no news because we don't know as yet."