Dowson hails Belleau's bravery as Saints boss gives update on injured trio

Belleau stepped in at late notice for Saints in the Investec Champions Cup clash at Stade Chaban-Delmas after Fin Smith was ruled out with a tight calf.

The French fly-half took a boot to the mouth after coming on against Quins and he lost some teeth while also being required him to have stitches.

Saints, who lost 50-28 in Bordeaux, had been keen to protect Belleau by leaving him out of the matchday squad, but Smith's withdrawal meant he had to step in.

"Fin was taken out with a tight calf," Dowson confirmed.

"To be honest, at this time of the year, it's very much on the conservative side, precautionary to make sure he's okay moving forward.

"So we're hopeful he won't be too long.

"James Ramm (who also had to withdraw from the matchday squad for the trip to Bordeaux) is similar with a hamstring that sort of flared up during the week.

"The Rambo one happened earlier in the week and Fin was later in the week so that can be disruptive.

"The two things I would point out was how little it affected the group and how little impact it had on the way we trained and the way we talked. I thought that was really positive.

"No heads went down, we got on with training, we got on with things and we trained well.

"The second thing is that I would credit Anthony Belleau, who had a pretty shocking injury, a really big cut down his chin, he lost teeth, we found teeth during training on the pitch that we presume were his.

"He'd been messaging the physio all week saying 'I'm fit to play, I'm fit to play', but because we had Fin fit, we wanted to look after him and make sure he was healed.

"But as soon as Fin went down, Tony was knocking on the door saying he wanted to play so that speaks volumes about him as a person and how much he cares about the team.

"Anthony initiated it, he saw a specialist dentist about what the further ramifications around a shot in there would be. He had a specialist gum shield made for his lower set of teeth just for today.

"He did some contact training to get a feel for it yesterday and he forgot his gumshield so we had to get a taxi back to the hotel to get his gum shield.

"He did that with (Saints defence coach) Lee Radford yesterday to make sure he was good to go.

"He showed good backbone there to get stuck into it, and I thought he played pretty well on the back of it.

"He will have further dentistry in the next couple of months and he'll have a smile like Lee Radford in no time.

"The gum shield has looked after his bottom teeth and he's thinking about making a necklace with the ones he found.

"He'll be okay, we'll make sure we look after him and get the correct treatment for him."

Dowson had said earlier in the week that George Furbank would be available against Bordeaux, and the Saints skipper had been pictured in training during the week.

However, he has suffered an injury that meant he was ruled out.

"Furbs was scanned, it's not too bad, so we're hopeful he'll start moving around at the start of the week," Dowson said. "It's his calf."