Boyd happy with first season in charge at Saints, but he is aiming higher

Chris Boyd has spoken about how much he has enjoyed his first season as director of rugby with the Saints - and his hopes for the future.

The New Zealander defied the odds to guide Saints to a top-four finish in the Gallagher Premiership, but their title dream was ended at the weekend when they were thumped 42-12 at Exeter Chiefs in the play-off semi-final.

The Devon side now go on to face Saracens in Saturday's showpiece at Twickenham, while the Saints players can think about putting their feet up and enjoying the summer break; although you get the feeling Boyd won't be having too much time off.

Taking over a team that only finished ninth last season, Boyd has secured that semi-final spot as well as European Champions Cup rugby next season, and he says he is pretty satisfied with how things turned out.

He had set a pre-season target of a top-six finish for Saints, but they exceeded that, so when did Boyd believe a top-four finish could be achieved?

"I think it built slowly," said the former Hurricanes head coach.

"The underlying goal was always to get back into the top tier in Europe, and if we could get anything more than that then it was a bonus.