Saints boss Dowson knows 'really entertaining' Bears have substance and style

And the Saints boss knows his side must be on their A game, mentally and physically, if they are to beat the Bears at Ashton Gate on Friday night.

Dowson's men have endured some tough times away to Bristol in recent years, shipping more than a half-century of points in each of their past two Gallagher Premiership trips to Ashton Gate.

And their task is set to be even tougher this week as they are without their England stars and are coming up against a Bristol team who have been flying in recent times.

"They've been fantastic entertainment," Dowson said.

"They've got a very different style to pretty much everyone else in the league in terms of how they play.

"Sometimes you can undermine what the fundamentals and the core foundation of what that game is by looking at the offloads and the scorelines and their exciting, dazzling play, but they've got a very good lineout both in defence and attack.

"They've got a strong scrum, very good ball carriers like (Rohan Janse) van Rensburg at 12, and some of the forward carriers are outstanding so they're a really, really good outfit, playing exciting rugby that's really entertaining.

"Everything's on the whole time and (Harry) Randall and (AJ) MacGinty have been outstanding."

So what have the Saints coaches learned from recent trips to Bristol?

"We haven't quite got it right and we need to make sure psychologically we're in the right space and also that we're ready for the game they're going to bring," Dowson said.

"They've brought their game on a bit and it's even more dangerous than it was.

"Defensively, we've got to make sure we're super connected and we're working hard to shut down some of their exciting options."

Trevor Davison, Fin Smith, Ollie Sleightholme, Tommy Freeman and George Furbank have all been at England's training camp in Girona this week, ruling them out of Friday's game.

And Dowson said: "It's a huge shame.

"Obviously we're missing five guys so that makes it tricky, but it also makes it hugely exciting because than then tests the depth of our squad and we find out about people under massive pressure.

"We're excited about how the guys have been playing, there's been so many people who have been knocking on my door saying they want to play, and now they get the opportunity to do that.

"We're excited about the opportunity and we can't wait to see who steps up."