Falcons boss Walder looking forward to taking on former house-mate Dowson

Both men used to play for Newcastle, with Dowson skippering Falcons before moving to Saints in the summer of 2009.

And they struck up a great friendship, one that will be put aside briefly when their teams meet this weekend.

Walder told the Newcastle Falcons website: “Dows and I always hated playing against each other because we’re such good mates, and one of us has to lose.

“I’ll probably go for dinner with him on Friday night or at least pop round to see him and his family, and we’re pretty relaxed about it.

"We’re both professional though, and once it’s game day then your full focus is on doing everything you can to give your team the best possible chance of winning.

“You’re not thinking about the fact you shared a house for four years or that he’s godfather to one of your kids, because you’re just concentrating on doing your own job.

"I don’t think we’re going to be having any scraps on the touchline, but the occasional barbed comment might come out just to see how he takes it!”

Saints beat Newcastle on the final day of last season, but prior to that the Falcons had a good record at the Gardens, winning on their previous three league visits.

“It’ll be hard to stop them, but if we get our own stuff right then we’ll cause them some problems," Walder said.

“Northampton have the most offloads in the Premiership, they’re playing with confidence and they have good individual threats who like to move the ball.

"They’ve recruited really well in their forward pack to add a bit more grit and ball-carrying threat, and we know they will challenge us.

“We’re confident we can challenge them back in certain areas, and up until last season when they needed to win to have a chance of getting into the play-offs we’ve had a good record down there in winning our last three or four league games.

"We nicked a couple of those with last-minute tries through the likes of Mark Wilson and Nili Latu, and our record there is actually pretty good.

“I think Northampton would be the first to admit they’ve been a bit inconsistent this season.

"They play a great style of rugby and move the ball really well, they’ve got an exciting group of backs and a bit more punch in their forwards now.

"Those forwards create a lot of space for them, and it will be a great test for us going down there.”