Dowson delighted with every aspect of Saints' superb showing at Saracens

The black, green and gold bagged a brilliant 18-12 win at StoneX Stadium, ending the Gallagher Premiership champions' five-match winning streak.

It was a performance built on incredible defensive desire, capped with fine tries from Ollie Sleightholme and Alex Mitchell.

And Dowson said: "I'm delighted with all facets of the game.

"The lineout was under a bit of pressure and I thought we managed that when Alex Coles, our caller, went off and Chunya (Munga) as well. For Courtney (Lawes) to call that was strong.

"We talked during the week about the quality of Saracens being a measuring stick for some of the things we worked on from last season in terms of our defence, our set piece and elements of that.

"We talked before the game about discipline issues and we want to be hard at the breakdown and create turnovers. That comes with an element of risk but we ran that balance pretty well in this game in terms of we got turnovers and didn't give many penalties away.

"We told them it was a really good first 40 minutes but we knew they were going to come out in the second half and our bench did a huge job in driving energy, not doing anything special or changing the game but just staying in it.

"Against a group like Saracens with such an organised defence, you don't want to keep running into it, that was one of the lessons from last year, so to turn them and wait for the right opportunities is something we're trying to coach.

"The decision-making of when to be more pragmatic is the key for us."

Saints are now just two points off the top of the Premiership going into European Champions Cup action at Glasgow Warriors on Friday.

And Dowson said: "It's an exciting season and it adds pressure every week.

"You've got to be on your mettle every week. If you're ever so slightly off, you're going to get punished, so it's good for the league and hopefully for the crowd as well."