Mallinder 'always on the end of the phone' for Saints boss Dowson

And Dowson is happy to be able to call on the advice of the double-winning director of rugby whenever he needs to.

Mallinder enjoyed a hugely successful spell at Saints, leading the club back into England's top tier at the first time of asking following relegation in 2007.

He steered them to Premiership, European Challenge Cup and Anglo-Welsh Cup glory as well as a Heineken Cup final.

Dowson was present for all of those cup successes, having moved to Saints from Newcastle Falcons in 2009.

The back row forward would play 186 times for the black, green and gold before moving to Worcester Warriors in 2015.

Dowson hung up his boots two years later, heading back to Saints to take on a coaching role.

He was forwards coach as recently as last season but was promoted to director of rugby following Chris Boyd's departure during the summer.

And Dowson is tapping in to all of the knowledge of the people around him, at Saints and beyond, as he bids to bring success to cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.

"I'm very lucky with not just the people in the environment, but someone like Jim Mallinder, who I keep in contact with," Dowson said.

"I have so much respect for Jim and what he did here so I've got a lot of people I can lean on for that experience.

"I don't necessarily call Jim that often but at the end of the season we went out for a nice pub lunch in East Haddon, which was lovely.

"We had a couple of pints and he just offered advice, and I asked him questions.

"We'll catch up now and again, every couple of months to see how he's getting on with Scotland (Mallinder is director of performance at Scotland Rugby).

"Jim still lives around here, he flies up to Scotland from Birmingham and he's got it down. He prefers to fly up and fly out two days a week.

"He'll always be on the end of a phone, like Stuart Lancaster, like Dean Ryan, like Alan Dickens - all these people I'm lucky enough to lean on when I need some advice and help.

"When I used to play rugby, I'd try to take something from that player, something from another player.

"There's things that Gary Gold did at Worcester, which I thought were excellent, and it was the same with Dean Ryan.

"You have ideas as to how the game should be coached and how it should be played, how players respond to those things and you're constantly learning and trying to get better.

"You do that by learning, discussing different ideas and philosophies around the best way of doing things."

Dowson will take charge of a competitive Saints home game for the first time when London Irish come calling on Saturday afternoon.

But he insists he won't be sitting back and reflecting on how far he has come as a coach.

"I'm really focused on trying to beat London Irish and giving the players the best opportunity to do that," Dowson said.

"It's about how I can support the coaches and players best, and in terms of Saints first it's about what I can be most effective at in both the short term and long term.

"I'm very lucky to have Sam Vesty as a head coach with such a nuanced view of rugby.

"We've got Ian Vass, who has so much experience of different leagues. He has a slightly different philosophy to Sam, but they complement each other and challenge each other, which is really healthy."