Bye weekends have been crucial in easing workload, insists Boyd
CHRIS Boyd believes the bye weekend for one club in every round of the Premiership has been a welcome relief in a crowded season.
But how long clubs can continue to plan for having two weekends off every season hinges on the issue of promotion and relegation. There are 13 clubs in the Premiership but have been moves to increase the number to 14.
Boyd’s Northampton have won five of their last six Premiership matches and victory over Newcastle at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday would take them into the play-offs.
But it will be only their second match since April 29 as they missed out on the latter stages of the Challenge Cup.
“Having a long break was difficult,” said Boyd, right, Northampton’s director of rugby. “I had never been in a position where there was only one game in a month. You have to prepare as best you can but it is different and it has been frustrating.
“What is pleasing at this stage of the season is that we are in control of our own destiny,” added Boyd, who is returning to New Zealand at the end of the season although he will retain his links to the Saints as a consultant.
“What the break allowed us to do was work really on aspects like skills in training, but it is difficult when you have not played games. That said, the bye weeks are not an issue and I think they have been a really good thing. “It allows you to plan leave well ahead. The Premiership is a marathon and if you can lock in early in the season a couple of weeks that are not going to change, you can plan your whole regeneration programme around those two weeks.
“The players know that irrespective of what happens, where we are in the table and how well we are playing, they will have having two whole weeks off during
the season and they know when they will be.
“I think it is a good place to be, but what I have seen for next season, the bye weeks might get swallowed up by the Premiership Rugby Cup. I do not see the odd number of clubs in the league as being an issue, although there is an ongoing debate about promotion and relegation. It is not my problem any more.”
Boyd is looking to end his four-year spell at Northampton on a high. The club had six players in the England squad that trained this month with no one in the Premiership boasting more, but he feels it is the right time to go.
“Whenever you get on a big wave, you never want it to end,” he said. “But it does come to an abrupt stop and that is what sport is all about. I think the timing is right.
“All six of our players came through the club’s academy. Courtney Lawes was an established international when I arrived, but the other five have been included in the four years I have been here.
“It is reward for the work our academy is doing, together with our relationship with Bedford which allows our young players to play meaningful matches. It is a tribute to the coaching and management in our academy.”
Northampton will move into a new indoor training facility in the new year after planning permission was granted for the building which will be housed near Franklin’s Gardens. Work starts next month.
“This will be a big build, the first of this scale at the club for many years,” said Saints’ chief executive, Mark Darbon. “While we are already very proud of our home, we must continue to invest in our facilities to underpin our ambition to be successful at the very top of our sport and attract some of the best players in the world.
“The High Performance Centre will create a step change in the quality of the facilities available to our performance staff and the playing group. All year round, we will be able to train onsite, on high-quality surfaces, whatever the weather.
“The development will also enable us to engage with the community in new ways, and help us attract new events to Franklin’s Gardens.”