Dowson: Saints’ performance at Sale ‘more like it’ despite narrow defeat

Director of Rugby Phil Dowson commended his Northampton Saints side’s response to last week’s humbling derby defeat, but admitted the overriding emotion to Friday night’s loss at Sale was more disappointment.

The men in Black, Green and Gold wanted to produce a reaction to the previous weekend’s result, but had to scrap for every inch in a first half that saw both Tom James and Tommy Freeman sin-binned early on.

Despite that, Saints weathered the storm and answered Tom O’Flaherty’s try and Tom Roebuck’s brace with scores from Emmanuel Iyogun and Freeman to trail 17-12 at the interval.

Northampton briefly levelled the scores at 17-17 thanks to a moment of magic from No.8 Henry Pollock, but a maul try for Bevan Rodd and George Ford’s penalty opened up a ten-point gap for Sale.

That left the visitors with a mountain to climb entering the closing stages of the game, and despite a score from Fraser Dingwall which ultimately yielded two bonus points for Saints, Dowson’s side were beaten when they conceded a turnover penalty just inside Sale’s 22 with the clock in the red.

“It was what we were looking for; a response and a reaction,” he said.

“There were a lot of errors in the second half, a lot of turnovers, which gave them opportunities or let pressure off. We’re disappointed not to get a result because there were lots of elements of the game that were very good.

“We had another week’s training together and that had a big impact, so we’re delighted with the effort, but we just haven’t quite worked smart enough.

“Having gone down to 13 men and more or less survived, coming in and making it a one score game, we had some momentum. But we couldn’t really get going in the second half – it was very stop-start. We kept letting the pressure off and couldn’t get any flow.

“There’s no lack of emotional engagement in what we’re trying to do. It’s a cracking group of lads, as I’ve said before, but we haven’t played well enough consistently throughout the season.”

Dowson was impressed in particular with the performance of Tom James, who was filling in at fly-half for the first time in his professional career in the absence of several more-established No.10s who were not available for Saints for the clash.

He said: “TJ was excellent, he’s been excellent all week. He was game for the challenge.

“We couldn’t quite do enough to make it truly special, but I thought he was excellent in how he performed.”

“Henry’s try was just a touch of class,” Dowson added, reflecting on Pollock’s effort which saw him break several tackles before collecting his own chip-kick to score early in the second half. “He has that ability to change the game and inspire the people around him. He can do things other people can’t do.

“His try gave us another burst of momentum, and even his offload for our first try was pretty special.”