Saints 'guilty of trying a bit too hard' as lack of discipline proves key in defeat to Bears

The black, green and gold conceded a huge amount of penalties, shipping 15 in total as the Bears punished Saints for their sinning.

Second-half tries from Max Lahiff and Harry Thacker helped the away side to get the job done, though Saints were still in with a shout late on, eventually knocking on to end the game.

Saints had been 19-8 up during the first half, but they constantly found themselves on the wrong side of referee Craig Maxwell-Keys.

And when asked how his side can solve the disciplinary problems that blighted them on Saturday, Dowson said: "It comes down to two things.

"One would be that you identify it, you train it and reward it. So we identify where we can be better, train that and reward it where we see it done properly.

"The second thing is that from a mental point of view, I felt in the second half that we got a bit stressed and that's when you go and try too hard and that's when you jump out of system.

"I think were probably guilty of trying a bit too hard and trying to solve things as an individual rather than a team."

Saints did manage to bag a try bonus point and a losing bonus point on a day when injuries affected them badly.

George Hendy was forced to withdraw during the warm-up, bringing Tom Litchfield in at centre.

And Litchfield certainly didn't let the team down, catching the eye with his display.

"I thought Tom was excellent," Dowson said.

"He's obviously been training all week to cover that exact scenario so I was really impressed with him.

"I thought he carried well and I was really impressed with Tom from an individual performance perspective, but obviously from a team perspective it was hugely disappointing."