Mixed emotions for Dowson after Saints show real heart in defeat at Tigers

The black, green and gold were eventually beaten 54-33 by Leicester Tigers, but Saints showed their fight against a strong home side.

Dowson's men fell 21-0 down inside 23 minutes and also lost experienced forwards Callum Hunter-Hill and Juarno Augustus to injury.

But Saints kept fighting and twice got back to just two points down, at 21-19 and 28-26, before Tigers eventually pulled clear during the second period.

"There's frustration and disappointment because you come to Welford Road and you want to perform well and win," Dowson said.

"For large parts of the game, we did perform well, but we gave them a big head-start at 21-0 and that made it tricky.

"I was really happy with the fight and the heart we showed.

"We talked after Stade Français about the importance of the breakdown, and we've been brilliant at the breakdown ever since.

"We talked last week after Quins about our defensive movement and then there's elements of discipline where lads are trying hard.

"I thought Billy Pasco on his first start against that calibre of opposition was outstanding.

"There's always things we can be better at and we'll work hard on that, but I was very proud of the effort as always."

Dowson added: "Even in the last 10 minutes we could have put a bit more heat on them to give ourselves an opportunity.

"They got a couple of late scores and it looks a bit of a blowout, but it wasn't.

"The fight, the desire to carry out the Saints DNA and the game plan under pressure against a good Leicester side were outstanding.

"We're frustrated and disappointed to be sat in the dressing room after conceding 50 points but there's a huge amount of pride about the way we came back into the game and the way we carried ourselves."

Tigers named a side that contained the likes of Dan Cole, Hanro Liebenberg and Ben Youngs.

And Dowson said: "We said we would have a test: a test in defence, in the set piece and in attack, and that's where you find out about each other and about our preparation.

"We can look back over that and make sure we take everything we can out of it and be better for it in the future."