Chris Boyd confident of fielding a team against London Irish despite a positive case in Northampton

Northampton Saints director of rugby Chris Boyd is confident of fielding a team for the fifth round of Gallagher Premiership clash against London Irish.

A Covid-19 outbreak saw two Premiership games cancelled in the previous round but Boyd reckons despite a player returning positive for Covid-19 in the Saints squad, they have enough bench strength to field a matchday 23 squad for the game at Community Stadium on 3rd January.

"We actually had our first positive test for a significant number of weeks today," Boyd told The Daily Telegraph.

"It's been identified from an external source; a sibling of one of the boys.

"The boys have been really vigilant, the club's been really vigilant. You often can't control these things when they happen. We're not saying that other people haven't been very good about [controlling Covid infections] but, so far, we've been pretty decent.

"We have gone back, tracked, traced, and we will most likely isolate one or two other people because of close contacts. But it doesn't put us anywhere near into jeopardy for getting a team on the paddock for the weekend."

Northampton Saints are currently positioned ninth in the Gallagher Premiership table with a solitary win from four games.