As Director of Rugby at Northampton Saints, Phil Dowson has delivered the Club’s first Premiership title in a decade and masterminded a run to the Final of the Champions Cup.
After a hugely successful playing career at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens, the former back-row hung up his boots at the end of the 2016/17 season to initially join Saints’ coaching set-up.
Arriving in 2009 from Newcastle Falcons, Dowson made a total of 186 appearances for the Club, and scored 28 tries in Black, Green and Gold. He skippered the team to the 2010 Anglo-Welsh Cup title, and also starred in Saints’ fairytale 2011 Champions Cup run – where he scored the opening try of the Final.
But after reaching the Premiership Final for the first time in 2013, the real success story came 12 months later as Dowson lifted both the league and European Challenge Cup titles with Saints.
His tally of 262 Premiership appearances is the seventh-highest in the competition’s history, and more than any active player. Dowson was also capped seven times by England, captaining both the England Saxons and the senior England side in a non-capped international against the Barbarians at Twickenham.
Following a two-year stint with Worcester Warriors to round off his playing career, he returned to join the first-team set-up at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens as Assistant Coach at the beginning of the 2017/18 season.
But after impressing that term in his new role, then Director of Rugby Chris Boyd entrusted Dowson with marshalling Saints’ forwards at the beginning of the 2018/19 campaign. He coached an England XV that faced the Barbarians in June 2019.
In January 2022, the Club announced that Dowson would be succeeding Boyd as Director of Rugby ahead of the start of the 2022/23 season.
In his first year at the helm, Dowson led Northampton to the Premiership knock-out stages – where Saints would fall to eventual champions, Saracens. But the men in Black, Green and Gold hit the summit the following campaign; finishing top of the league table after the regular season and going on to lift the Premiership trophy with a Final victory over Bath at Twickenham.
Dowson also transformed Saints’ fortunes in Europe’s top-tier competition, as Northampton reached the Champions Cup semi-finals in 2023/24 before going one step further in 2024/25 as they reached the showpiece Final in Cardiff – narrowly going down to Bordeaux-Bègles.
His vision for Saints remains clear; sustainable success, a deep connection to Club identity, and fostering the next generation of homegrown talent.
