Reaction // Dowson both proud and frustrated following Saints’ European exit

Director of Rugby Phil Dowson expressed his pride in Northampton Saints’ run in this season’s Investec Champions Cup, but admitted his side’s first-half display ultimately cost them against Leinster in Dublin.

The men in Black, Green and Gold were beaten 20-17 in front of 82,300 people at Croke Park, following an impressive second-half comeback from 20-3 down.

Scores from George Hendy and Tom Seabrook, plus two sublime conversions and a penalty from Fin Smith, saw Saints draw back within three points of the Irish giants – but the clock was against them, and Leinster held firm in the final moments of the match.

It was a brave fightback that had thousands of travelling Northampton supporters on their feet in Dublin, and while this year’s European journey has now ended, Dowson hopes the memories made – with his side beating the likes of Munster, Vodacom Bulls, RC Toulon and Bayonne on their way to the semi-finals – will stand them in good stead for the weeks ahead.

“When we set out on the European campaign, we said we wanted to challenge ourselves against the best sides to see who we were as a group, and in terms of our togetherness getting this far speaks volume about our game,” said Dowson.

“The first thing we’ve got to do is make sure we put this to bed, to have a drink together, and celebrate what that campaign was. But then we’ve got to prepare for Gloucester appropriately this week.

“We spoke a lot last week about wanting to play against the best sides, and in the best stadiums. Croke Park is a historic venue and we were excited about the opportunity of playing in front of 82,000 people.

“Of course we’d love to be in this situation year-on-year. We’re losing some players this summer, and next year is a new story, but we’ve got to make sure we finish this story first with the Premiership run-in now ahead of us.”

Saints were put under extreme pressure by Leinster in the opening 40 minutes, with James Lowe crossing the whitewash twice and then completing his hat-trick early in the second half.

That meant the men in Black, Green and Gold had to overturn a 17-point deficit to earn a place in the showpiece final at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but they came within one score of doing just that – and Dowson admitted ultimately the key source of frustration was taking so long to get their game on the pitch.

He added: “I felt like the longer the game was 20-10, the more it fell into our hands in terms of that pressure. We came more and more into the game and all of the substitutions had a big impact on that.