'Brutal to watch' but Dowson salutes Saints' maturity after round-of-16 success

But the black, green and gold boss was impressed with the maturity his men showed as they secured a 49-41 success in a roller coaster encounter at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens on Friday night.

Saints and Castres slugged it out in a 13-try thriller, with Dowson's men mounting a second-half comeback in which they scored 35 points.

It meant they were able to get over the line to set up a quarter-final clash with either Bath or Saracens next weekend.

And Dowson said: "It was brutal to watch at times so goodness knows what it was like to play in it.

"The try George (Furbank) scored was a huge turning point because they'd just had a try chalked off and we came straight back down and scored so that was the moment of the match.

"We knew they were going to come out and play and we knew the individuals they have in that group and how good they are at getting the ball going forward.

"The space they create, the offloading and the athletes they have in the backline is impressive and they scored a great scrum try where they pulled apart our backline so we were under some pressure.

"But the maturity of the squad now is such that we can start poorly from a scoreline point of view and then recover nicely and get ourselves back in the game.

"I was very pleased with how we recovered from that.

"I don't think we ever thought we were on top of them, we never got away in the scoreline and we didn't manage to deal with the restarts so as soon as we scored, we let them back in to get field position and pressure.

"I never felt with the (three Castres) yellow cards that that was our opportunity to go, and sometimes those things galvanise a group. Yellows, reds can pull a group tighter together - and they played very well in those situations.

"Credit to Castres because they've come here and they want to play fast, and so do we. That means you get an entertaining game.

"There's clearly huge elements of our defence that we'd like to be better, there's elements of our set piece have to be better and they're the things a team like Castres exposed in our training week so we'll get to work on that on Monday.”

Saints full-back and skipper George Furbank was named player of the match.

And Dowson said: "There's loads of small things that Furbs does back to back.

"He had a frustrating time in the England camp where he didn't get much opportunity but he was training hard.

"He's come back in (to Saints) and last week, this week, his high-ball work, his counter-attack... we talk all the time about how decisive he is and I thought he was excellent.

"The other thing that people maybe don't see is during the week how he leads, how he gets the group together, how he connects the group.

"He's been excellent for us."

Saints suffered another injury blow as James Ramm was forced off during the first half and was sporting a protective boot after the match.

It was the latest in a long line of injuries to key players for the black, green and gold, who have recently lost Trevor Davison for the rest of the season due to knee surgery.

But Dowson said: "Anyone who's playing is a key person.

"It was obviously sad to lose Trev (Trevor Davison) and with James Ramm limping off today, we'll have to see how that goes, but that's the whole point of having a squad.

"We've got to make sure we push those next guys in and you see Jonny Weimann with TJ (Tom James) and Alex Mitchell out stepping into his first European game.

"It's the model of the club, a development club and for these guys to get opportunity in a fairly intense game is great for them and we'll reflect on that and be better next time."

If Bath beat Saracens on Saturday (kick-off 3pm), Saints will head to The Rec for a quarter-final next weekend.

If Saracens win, Saints would host Mark McCall's men in the last eight.

And Dowson is now determined to enjoy the weekend before focusing on the next big battle.

He said: "We've got a win under our belt, just about, and we can have a Saturday, Sunday where we can enjoy Easter and then hit the ground running on Monday with a great opportunity, whoever we're playing against."