Dowson feels Saints showed what they are made of against Gloucester
Phil Dowson feels Saints showed what they are made of during their shut-out second-half showing against Gloucester on Saturday evening.
The champions refused to concede a single point after half-time against the team that had come into the Gallagher PREM weekend sitting top of the table.
Saints came back from 14-0 down, levelling the scores by half-time, and they then kicked on after the interval to score two more tries to secure a hard-fought bonus-point 28-14 win at DPD Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.
The victory was made all the more impressive by the fact Saints lost Alex Mitchell to a hamstring injury on 21 minutes, with talented 20-year-old Jonny Weimann stepping up in his place to help the hosts mount a superb comeback.
"I thought Gloucester started very well," Dowson said. "They had a ton of energy and momentum coming into the game and I thought they showed that.
"We were still a bit frustrated from last week (the 28-7 defeat at Leicester Tigers) but what we did was battle hard and I thought we were excellent in that second quarter of the match.
"We got back into the game just before half-time, a great time to score and we started to really get a bit more momentum ourselves.
"We controlled possession and territory pretty well in the second half and managed to convert some of those opportunities.
"We were disappointed with last week so there was no better game to find out about ourselves with Gloucester flying along.
"We could find out about this group and we answered that really affirmatively in the second half.
"To finish the (PREM) block on that is really rewarding and we can send those internationals away with a good vibe and focus on a slightly different element of our group in the PRC (PREM Rugby Cup).
Saints had plenty of players away on international duty during the early part of the build-up to the Gloucester game, but they ultimately didn't let the disruption stop them prevailing on the evening.
"There were nine of our starting group and 13 of the 23 that went to international camps with England, Scotland and Italy so we didn't see them until Thursday," Dowson explained.
"I probably spoke a little bit more than I normally would after the game against Leicester because after that I wasn't going to see them for a few days.
"But it speaks volumes about the connection and how ingrained our game plan, DNA, whatever you want to call it is.
"We only had a couple of days of training with everyone and that's potentially one of the reasons we started a bit slowly and sloppily but our energy and intent around that Thursday session, how tight we were as a group on Friday says a lot about the group."