'I'd like a game where we're more than a score ahead at the end'

Northampton Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson feels his side must be more clinical after they nearly let a commanding lead slip late on in a 32-31 success over Newcastle Falcons in the Gallagher Premiership. Saints had appeared to be cruising on two occasions, going 13-0 up in the first half and leading 32-14 at the midpoint of the second half.

Three unanswered Falcons scores cut the Saints lead to just a point with nine minutes to play, but they survived and moved back into the top four after a second consecutive bonus-point victory. “I’d quite like a game where we are more than a score ahead at the end!” joked Dowson, who is settling into his first season in charge as Northampton DoR.

“It was frustrating that we had so many opportunities to put that game away, but we didn’t. We let them come back into it and it becomes a flip of a coin and we will get turned over at times like we did at Quins and at Sale. We have got to make sure we are better in the last ten minutes.

“We went in 14-13 down after being dominant in the first half and we were not efficient enough at converting our pressure into points and we were too easy to score against, conceding way too many points. They are things we need to work on during the week and things we acknowledge are not good enough.”

Meanwhile, his opposite number Dave Walder was left to rue a disastrous start to the second period which ultimately cost his side, who stay ninth in the table. Both Sebastian de Chaves and Ben Stevenson were carded within the first seven minutes of the second half and Saints more than made use of their numerical advantage, cashing in on the scoreboard to build an ultimately unassailable lead.

“I feel a slight frustration both with the inconsistency in the way we played and in terms of the way things were happening on the pitch,” he said. “The breakdown was a bit of a 50/50 call and I felt a couple of things could have gone our way that didn’t at key moments.

“My frustrations were because we were disappointing for the first 15 or 20 minutes and at the start of the second half, but we got ourselves back in the game. We got a couple of points from the game, but it was hugely frustrating there at the end.

“I’m not sure where Seb (de Chaves) could go for his yellow but ultimately he has got out of the way because that is the law. Then, Ben Stevenson, it was a late change of direction because their back (Rory Hutchinson) put in a quick step. The disappointing thing was what happened at the start of the second half because we got our lineout launch wrong, kicked it out on the full and then got a yellow card.”