Boyd not worried by Saints' current Premiership position

Chris Boyd's Saints lost to Todd Blackadder's Bath last weekend (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)

And the Saints boss has told his team to focus on future performances rather than the past as they get set for a clash with Bristol at Ashton Gate on Saturday.

Saints go into the game on the back of three defeats from four Gallagher Premiership games so far.

That has left them sitting 11th in the embryonic league standings.

And when asked whether his team should have accrued more than the five points they possess, Boyd said: "Absolutely.

"At the end of the day, the story will be told around the number of points we've got, but we could have come away with more points in all the games we've played so that leads to frustration.

"It's still way too early to worry about tables, we've just got to worry about performances.

"If the performance is good enough we'll get a result.

"We had parts of our game against Bath (Saints lost 17-15 at The Rec last Saturday) that would lead you to say it wasn't a good enough performance to win - and it wasn't a good enough performance to win.

"It was a tricky day, tricky conditions and parts of our game creaked, which we were disappointed about, but we've trained well this week and we're looking forward to Bristol."

And Boyd added: "We're disappointed with where we're sitting but there's certainly no evidence of panic, cracks or concern.

"We've just got to concentrate on what we need to do and Bristol are a different beast to most Premiership sides.

"They're very optimistic, they play a lot, they play behind the gain line, they don't play for territory and when they haven't got the ball, they bring real line speed and intent at the breakdown. They probably contest the ball harder than anyone else.

"They bring a different set of strengths to what we've faced in the first four weeks and it will be interesting to see how we adapt to it."

Bristol have won two of their four games to date, beating Bath and Harlequins at Ashton Gate.

"Bristol have had a really positive return to the Premiership," Boyd said.

"They had two wins, against Bath and Harlequins, which they deserved and earned, and they had a couple of good halves against Sarries and Gloucester. They did get run over the top of against those two sides in the end, but they are both good sides.

"They've had a really encouraging return to this division."