Dowson // Saints’ ‘hustle and hard work’ to credit for Chiefs victory

Phil Dowson was impressed with the effort shown by his Northampton Saints squad as they held off a late fightback from Exeter Chiefs and claim their first victory of the new Gallagher Premiership campaign.

Saints pulled away from Chiefs to hold a 20-point lead after an hour, but the away side fought back in the game’s final quarter – forcing a monumental defensive effort from the men in Black, Green and Gold in order to hold onto their 30-24 victory.

Tries from Alex Coles, Chunya Munga and Rory Hutchinson plus 15 points from Fin Smith’s boot were enough for Saints to claim their opening win but it was the side’s commitment to stay in the physical fight that pleased director of rugby Dowson the most against Exeter.

He said: “There's a lot of sore bodies in there and it was brutal from a physical point of view.

“Some of the effort we made, some of the hustle we showed to make them go one extra phase, make one extra pass, and the number of turnovers we got in our 22 speaks of the effort and hard work we put in.

After a frustrating first outing at Bath Rugby in Round 1 – where Saints were defeated 38-16 by last year’s runners-up – Dowson challenged his players to pick up the energy coming into their first home clash of the season.

And with Curtis Langdon, Juarno Augustus and Trevor Davison among those firing on all cylinders against Exeter, Dowson paid particular credit to the forward pack’s efforts.

He said: “One of the things we spoke about this week was our sloppiness in terms of letting the pressure off at Bath, giving away unacceptable penalties, not looking after the ball in contact.

“You can ever take all of them but we’ll continue to try to push in that space. There’s just a couple of areas that we need to keep ironing out.

“After Bath, we needed to sharpen up our attack, make sure that defensively we were really resolute and a few things to fix up in our set piece. But generally against Chiefs that was good, I thought our scrummaging was excellent this week.

“We know Ehren Painter, we know Scott Sio and the quality Exeter have so I thought Manny [Iyogun] and Trev [Davison] and the guys who came off the bench were excellent.

“Curtis Langdon was also brilliant. His appetite to go and get stuck in, his desire to hit hard is really evident – he’s a real livewire in that area.”

Fly-half Smith was named the Player of the Match by TNT Sports’ pundits for his 15-point haul against Chiefs. But for director of rugby Dowson, centre Hutchinson was the name to be singled out from Saints’ backs for his praise.

“I though Rory was excellent,” said Dowson of the 28-year-old Scotland international.

“The parts of the game that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with Hutch, his physicality, his defence, the turn overs he won, were very strong against Exeter. I appreciate he got a yellow card but that was probably one of the best displays we’ve seen from Hutch for a long time.

“He’s got such a great skillset, he sees space so well and communicates that space to the playmakers around him. He’s certainly in some good form at the moment.”

Saints have a six-day turnaround before they play host to Harlequins next Friday (4 October, kick-off: 7.45pm), and Dowson is already relishing the chance to take on the Londoners at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

He said: “They’re a side that like to play and I think that’s something that’s exciting. They’ve got livewire players like we do at nine and ten and they’ve got the speed and power elsewhere too.

“They’re a very dangerous side and a real threat to us so we’ve got to make sure that we recover properly, we take what we need to from the Chiefs match and make sure we’re looking ahead.”