Dowson explains why Saints have favoured a 6:2 split on the bench

The black, green and gold opted to stack their bench with an extra forward for crucial wins against Saracens and Newcastle Falcons last month.

It is an approach they could opt to stick with in the Gallagher Premiership play-off semi-final next weekend.

And when asked why he has preferred to have six forwards among his replacements in recent times, Dowson said: "One of the strongest elements of our squad is the second row and back row.

"People like Angus Scott-Young, Sam Graham, Alex Coles have been playing so well, it's very hard to leave them out.

"And with guys like Freemo (Tommy Freeman), who can cover centre, TJ (Tom James), who is capable and a really tough character on the wing, and Cal Braley as well, we've got guys who can cover things off and it gives us tonnes of energy up front.

"I'm able to say to the forward pack 'go for broke, bring your blood to water because we've got plenty to come off the bench'."

Saints used last Saturday's game against Leicester Tigers as a chance to get minutes into players in unfamiliar positions, namely Freeman and James.

Freeman often plays at full-back or on the wing, but he was at outside centre against Tigers, while scrum-half James was introduced in a wide berth.

And Dowson said: "Freemo's very talented and George Hendy has played a bit of 13 as well so these are things we look at and experiment with.

"Tom James came on on the wing and that was by design as well because if we go for a 6:2 split then TJ covers wing so we wanted to give him another 20 minutes where he looks at backfield coverage and he has to deal with high balls. It's just another opportunity to practice under pressure that you don't get in training.

"It was great to have that chance to see people in different scenarios."