Dowson delighted with Saints' effort as they beat Exeter in 'brutal' battle

The away side really brought the heat against the champions, playing long periods of the game in the Saints half.

Exeter eventually came back to just six points down, having fallen 30-10 behind, but Saints held on for the final two minutes to secure their first win of the new Gallagher Premiership season.

And Dowson said: "There's a lot of sore bodies in there and it was brutal from a physical point of view.

"Some of the effort we made, some of the hustle we showed to make them go one extra phase, make one extra pass, and the number of turnovers we got in our 22 speaks of the effort and hard work we put in.

"Against their really, really fast blitz, it is hard to attack against and there's lots of things we can do better, but I was really pleased.

"The league is nuts in terms of how competitive it is and towards the end, it got a little bit squeaky.

"They're a good side and it got a bit tight at the end."

Saints really stood tall in defence and were strong at the scrum, with Exeter opting to change their entire front row at half-time.

"We talked about it after the game at Bath, that the energy and intent is our baseline, and that was there again," Dowson added.

"We just needed to sharpen up our attack, make sure we were really resolute and our scrummaging was excellent.

"We know Ehren Painter, we know Scott Sio and the quality they have so I thought Manny (Iyogun) and Trev (Davison) and the guys who came off the bench were excellent.

"We spoke about being sloppy at Bath in terms of letting pressure off with penalties, looking after the ball in contact and at breakdown we wanted some speed.

"We created plenty of opportunities and we'll continue to try to push in that space.

"We just need to keep ironing a few things out."