'The second half was way better' - Dowson reacts to Saints' win against Bulls
Phil Dowson was impressed with the way his players pulled together after half-time as they eventually cruised to a 50-5 victory against Vodacom Bulls on Sunday afternoon.
The black, green and gold found it tough to break down a resilient Bulls defence during the first period, but tries from Ollie Sleightholme and George Hendy did send the hosts in with a 14-5 half-time lead.
Saints then pulled away during the second period, scoring another six tries to make it two wins from two, and 10 points from 10, in this season’s Investec Champions Cup.
“We were frustrated in the first half because we didn’t quite get the continuity or momentum into the game that we’d like,” Dowson said. “We couldn’t quite get our set piece going, but the second half was way better.
“The way the lads talked about it, dealt with it and galvanised the group was impressive.
“There were some incredible athletes in their team and guys wanting to prove a point so we were excited to get stuck into that and find out how we measured up.
“Players made a huge impact off the bench and that depth was huge for us.
“We felt we’d been a bit sluggish in the first half. We hadn’t moved around as much as we’d like and, more importantly, hadn’t moved them around as much as we’d have liked so that was definitely a message at half-time.”
Saints will now prepare for a return to Gallagher PREM action as they host Sale Sharks on Saturday.
“We don’t want to take our eye off the ball,” Dowson said.
“We want to make sure we’re fighting on both fronts, it starts again this week and we’ll be bang up for that.”