Dowson 'incredibly proud' of Saints' squad effort against Stade Français

The black, green and gold were eventually beaten 45-35 by Stade Français in the Investec Champions Cup pool match, but they had led for more than 50 minutes in the match.

Saints had to go to the French capital without 11 unavailable players, while they opted to rest the likes of Juarno Augustus and Fraser Dingwall following a six-day turnaround from the bruising battle with Bath.

Fin Smith was ruled out just before kick-off with what Dowson described as 'very, very bad man flu', meaning there had to be a late reshuffle with Rory Hutchinson moving to 10 and Charlie Savala coming in at 12.

Despite all of the disruption, Saints flew into an 21-0 lead inside 18 minutes, but Stade closed the gap to two points by half-time and turned on the power to secure the victory after the break.

Second-half sin-binnings for Alex Mitchell and skipper Josh Kemeny added further issues, but Dowson was quick to pay tribute to players for stepping up when their team needed them.

"I was incredibly proud of the squad effort," Dowson said.

"We talked before the game about how hard the lads work in training, how hard they work when they're not getting picked, how ingrained they are with our system, and lots of players stepped up today who haven't played much recently and who have been dying to play - guys like Seabs (Tom Seabrook), Charlie Savala stepping in late.

"All those lads acquitted themselves brilliantly and it speaks volumes about them as people and us as a group that we've got lots and lots of people who are willing to put a shift in."

Stade eventually proved too strong at lineout time, using their mauling game to devastating effect on several occasions.

"We were flying and there were going to be ebbs and flows in the game," Dowson said. "There were going to be times where they had momentum and times where we had it.

"We started again very well today but we didn't manage to convert some of that pressure later on and it's cost us as they've come back into the game.

"It's what's going to happen at the top end of Europe and in fairness to them, they came back into the game and scored just before half-time, which was a blow.

"Right up until 20 minutes to go, we were there or thereabouts, but we didn't deal with their power, particularly in the second half.

"We were shorn of some second rows and that's going to be an unbelievable experience for Tom Lockett. He'll take that personally.

"We did create some pressure and sometimes when you need the lineout ball and it goes astray, that lets the pressure off.

"Tommy (Lockett) will be so much better for it and the ugly, horrible, nasty experiences will be what he's talking about for a long period of time and will be just what he needs in terms of learning."

Saints were backed by a huge army of travelling fans in Paris.

"The reception the players got when they came off the bus here speaks volumes about how passionate the supporters are," Dowson said.

Saints have now taken 11 points from a possible 15 at the start of their Champions Cup campaign.

And they will finish the pool stages with a sold-out home match against Munster next Saturday.

"There's huge history at the club (Munster), tonnes of quality, tonnes of edge, a great leader in (Peter) O'Mahony," Dowson said.

"It's going to be a great challenge for us, added with Chris Boyd, the ex-Saints director of rugby, who will be back in town."