'Take them lightly at our peril' - Saints boss Boyd wary of Bath threat

Chris Boyd knows Saints can't afford to take Bath lightly at The Rec on Saturday.
JJ Hanrahan kicked a late penalty and Luther Burrell scored Saints' only try the last time they won at Bath, in December 2015JJ Hanrahan kicked a late penalty and Luther Burrell scored Saints' only try the last time they won at Bath, in December 2015
JJ Hanrahan kicked a late penalty and Luther Burrell scored Saints' only try the last time they won at Bath, in December 2015

The black, green and gold will be desperate to further their Gallagher Premiership top-four bid this weekend.

But to do that they must win at a stadium that has been far from a happy hunting ground in recent years.

In fact, Saints have never won at Bath under Boyd.

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And they have not been victorious at The Rec since a late JJ Hanrahan penalty earned a 13-11 win in December 2015.

Bath are currently bottom of the Premiership, having won just four of their 20 league games so far.

But Boyd knows just how tough an opponent they will be this weekend.

"They've got an outstanding squad so we take them lightly at our peril," Boyd said.

"We'll be determined."

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Saints saw their five-match winning streak end with a 31-21 defeat at Gloucester last Saturday.

It sent them out of the Challenge Cup at the last-16 stage and leaves them with only the Premiership left to play for.

"We have to get the momentum back," Boyd said.

"We're probably going to be a few (players) down.

"We're going to have to pick ourselves up really quickly and get back into it.

"We've got to get down to The Rec and try to right the wrongs."

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Saints are just four points off fourth-placed Exeter Chiefs with a game in hand.

But they know they will have to perform much better than they did last weekend if they are to stand any chance of securing a play-off berth.

"We certainly weren't accurate enough," Boyd said.

"The precision we've had in our game in the previous few weeks disappeared and that was probably as a result of the fact we weren't getting good front-foot ball.

"We weren't dominating those collisions physically and Gloucester did pretty well getting in there and slowing it down most of the time."