Saints are currently one of three second-placed sides on 14 points, but they all trail Ulster Rugby by three and only three runners-up join the five pool winners in the last eight.

However, that will all be academic if Northampton don’t win their Pool 1 clash in France and Boyd has stressed that will be their No.1 priority.

“We can’t control what will happen elsewhere, but at the end of the day we’ve got to do one better than Gloucester do at Toulouse,” the New Zealander told the Northampton Chronicle & Echo.

“It might be that a bonus point will get us there, it might be that four points does it or even five points might not get us there.

"What we can control is our outcome and performance, and we’ll go there with the best team for what we think is the right way to play against Lyon at home.”

Northampton recall the likes of Wales fly-half Dan Biggar, South Africa scrum-half Cobus Reinach and ex-England back-row forward Tom Wood, who were all rested for the 33-20 home win against Benetton last weekend.

“Rest and rotation go on all the time anyway, and I don’t even know what our strongest team is to be honest, because we’ve got three loose-head props all playing well and three tight-head props all playing well,” Boyd added.

Northampton Saints director of rugby Chris Boyd knows it won’t be just his side’s result at Lyon on Saturday that will decide whether the English club reach the quarter-finals of the Heineken Champions Cup for the first time since 2016 – but that will be his sole focus initially.