Saints star dedicates win to Kiwi coach

Northampton’s British and Irish Lions star Dan Biggar dedicated a rare victory to New Zealand coach Chris Boyd as the Saints celebrated their first home win of

2020.

Biggar scored a try and kicked

12 points in a 29-10 win over the Worcester Warriors at Northampton yesterday.

Boyd, Northampton’s director of rugby since 2018, told BBC

Northampton that the Saints were ‘‘delighted to get that monkey off the back. It’s been a barren time for us here at the Gardens. It’s been hard here to play here without the place pumping’’.

Biggar said after Northampton’s much-needed victory: ‘‘This one’s for [Chris Boyd], really’’, hailing the former Hurricanes coach for making sure the Saints players never lost faith, or perspective, during their barren run.

‘‘The boss has come in every day, and he’s been positive, he’s kept things black and white, there’s no grey areas, and he’s kept things in perspective with what’s going on in the world at the minute.

‘‘He deserves a huge amount of credit for the way he’s kept [us going]. Other coaches I’ve been involved with have let things slide a bit, but he’s kept a real energy about the place. So this is a big one for him, really.’’

Biggar, who won the man of the match award, was sinbinned during the game, as was Worcester’s former Blues fullback Melani Nanai.

Elsewhere, former All Black back-rower Steven Luatua scored a try and set up another to lead Bristol to a 27-19 win at Harlequins. The Bristol Bears skipper crashed over from short range and later produced a pop pass to send Niyi Adeolokun scurrying away to score.

Bristol scored four tries to one but their Kiwi coach Pat Lam was not impressed with their first-half effort and issued a stern warning during the interval.

‘‘It was a simple choice [at halftime] – fellas, if you want to keep playing like that as individuals you might as well get back on the bus and go back and have Christmas, or if you want to play the Bears way, make sure we start playing as a team because we were just 15 individuals out there,’’ Lam told BBC Bristol.

‘‘It was frustrating to watch, but fair play to the boys, they were more like the Bears in the second half, and we came home strong.’’

Leaders and champions Exeter Chiefs scored a 28-20 win over Gloucester, collecting a fourth successive bonus point victory.