Saints hooker Haywood ready to kick on after tackling Covid - twice!

Mike Haywood has revealed the part Covid-19 has played in disrupting his season at Saints.
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Haywood has only been able to make eight appearances during this campaign, with just two of those starts.

Sam Matavesi has been the main man at hooker, but this weekend he will move to seven and Haywood will start against Exeter Chiefs.

It is a big chance for the 30-year-old to remind the coaches of his qualities after a stop-start spell in the black, green and gold.

Mike HaywoodMike Haywood
Mike Haywood

And Haywood has explained just how difficult it has been overcoming Covid, not once but twice during the past year.

"Going into pre-season I really wanted to work on my game, throwing especially, and get back into the team," said Haywood, who has played 244 times for Saints.

"Obviously Sam Matavesi has come in and done a cracking job for us, taking the first-choice shirt so for me I had to go back to building blocks.

"But then Covid hit me over pre-season and I lost nine kilos. I felt terrible and stayed in my room for nine days.

"When I came back, I was like a different person.

"It takes ages to put the weight on and it took me three or four months to get anywhere near back to where I was.

"I'd had a really good pre-season up to that time.

"I've just had little niggles here and there since then.

"I started against Ulster, thought I played well and then the following week I injured my elbow, then I got Covid again for the game at Racing, which got cancelled.

"It's been a bit of a tricky one for me and it's just nice to get back playing."

But Haywood is now at full speed and setting his sights on propelling ninth-placed Saints up the Gallagher Premiership table, starting with Sunday's home game against Exeter Chiefs.

"At the beginning we were going well but it's got to the point where we're not getting the results we want," Haywood said.

"We had a lot of territory and possession last weekend and still lost.

"We've got to start taking the opportunities we create.

"We still say it's a young team but that team has got to produce.

"We were seventh going into last weekend and Sale were ninth, but now we're ninth and it's frustrating because this happened last year, losing games in the middle part.

"We need to manage this part of the season better and start winning matches.

"We fronted up last weekend and made so many chances that we shouldn't have been in a position where we needed a penalty to win the game at the end."