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Phil Dowson is Director of Rugby at Northampton Saints
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Phil Dowson is Director of Rugby at Northampton Saints
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Rugby

Dowson determined to improve Saints’ discipline under pressure

Northampton Saints’ Director of Rugby Phil Dowson insists his side need to improve across the board – and laid down that challenge to his coaching group after a late defeat at Saracens on Sunday afternoon.

The men in Black, Green and Gold had the match by the scruff of the neck at StoneX Stadium, leading 39-17 after a Fraser Dingwall hat-trick before the hour mark.

But two yellow cards for Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Tom James in the final 20 minutes proved costly, as Gallagher Premiership leaders Saracens scored several unanswered tries to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Following the final whistle, Dowson could not hide his frustration to see his side cough up the lead, and resolved to address some issues in Saints’ game this week with his team of coaches.

“It’s very hard to sum that game up in a sentence without using expletives,” he said.

“We’ve talked about it before when we’ve been in winning situations like that, but it’s particularly gutting when we’ve been very good for a lot of the game and then very poor for the remainder. It’s as disappointed as I’ve been in coaching.

“It’s not just about being better when we have players in the sin-bin; we have to do better in general.

“The way the game’s refereed now there’s lots more yellow cards, but there’s lots of sides who get yellow cards and don’t concede as much as we are – it’s something we need to look at and address as a coaching group.”

Phil Dowson, Director of Rugby

“To lose all the momentum in the game and not manage the game in those situations is costing us wins. My job is to provide wins.

“The discipline is not very good, and then we’re going off page when we’re under pressure.”

The game went to uncontested scrums during the first half as Saracens sustained multiple injuries in the front row, and Dowson believes that had a big impact as the clash wore on.

He said: “It had a huge impact. We had the upper hand in the scrum early on, and it does change the game because it becomes very hard to defend from scrums.

“We didn’t look after the ball in the second half, and that gave them lots of scrums and opportunities to attack us, so it does become very hard to defend from that point.

“There were a lot of great individual performances, but those need to come together to create a team performance, and they didn’t do that on Sunday.

“We’ll go through it and obviously those guys will get feedback in terms of what they’re doing well and what they’re doing poorly. But as a group, that’s the most important thing, and we weren’t good enough.”

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