Dowson calls on Saints to continue their momentum

The black, green and gold bagged a bonus-point success against Worcester Warriors on Boxing Day and then, after a five-week break from action, backed it up by beating Gloucester 31-26 last Saturday.

It means Saints have claimed 10 points from a possible 10 in the Gallagher Premiership ahead of Saturday's trip to Wasps.

And Dowson said: "In consideration of last season, it's brilliant to get a bit of momentum going, especially with such a long break between games.

"We've now got to continue to build into this block during the Six Nations to continue that confidence, continue building those standards and those foundations of our game.

"We had five weeks off from playing before last Saturday and it was the great unknown again - it was almost like a pre-season game.

"I was really delighted with the way the lads started the game and kept that pressure on.

"Playing away from home, Gloucester were desperate to keep us out but we made them work incredibly hard in that first half and it paid dividends in the second half when we were able to exert more pressure on a fatigued defence.

"It was brilliant to see that running game, we've got so many talented guys, so many ball players who want to be playing in those open space and to get that opportunity is brilliant.

"It's excellent to watch, we loved it, (attack coach) Sam Vesty was going mad in the coaches booth and really enjoying it."

Saints' success at Gloucester was built on set-piece stability.

And Dowson said: "Dave Ribbans called the lineout incredibly well. We had a lot of time to prepare and it was excellent.

"We were a little bit disappointed towards the end of the second half, where we didn't execute as well as we would have liked, but with Gloucester having such a dangerous maul, we negated it pretty well overall."