Saints boss Dowson praises loanee, reflects on Red Bulls loss and gives Belleau update

The black, green and gold were unable to score a point after half-time as Newcastle came back from 14-5 down at the break to secure a bonus-point cup success at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

It was a first defeat of the season for Saints, who were forced to field a makeshift backline for the entirety of the second period as they managed the minutes of George Furbank and Ollie Sleightholme and lost fly-half Anthony Belleau to injury on the stroke of half-time.

Newcastle brought a squad that had plenty of top-level experience and their on-loan Ulster centre Stewart Moore scored a hat-trick on debut to help Alan Dickens’ men to victory in the PREM Rugby Cup pool stage encounter.

"They brought a really strong team and that's what we wanted,” Saints boss Dowson said. “We wanted a challenge.

"A couple of things didn't go our way from an injury point of view, losing 10 and we were making sure we managed minutes for Furbs and Ollie coming back from injury so that didn't help matters, but in the second half we just lost our way a little.

"The intercept try was a shame because I felt we had the pressure in the second half up to that point and then we just tried a little bit too hard and looked a little bit scatty.

"It was good experience for this very young group and we've got to make sure we debrief it properly to take every single lesson we possibly can out of it.”

Saints’ 23 was packed with inexperienced faces, including lock James Bennett, the Loughborough University loanee, who started in the second row.

"We can't have a development ethos without some bumps in the road,” Dowson said.

"There were lots of guys there stepping up and I thought James Bennett in the second row was outstanding. He's been playing University rugby all year and we've seen him playing well.

"It's a huge step up against a really experienced Newcastle side with lots of PREM caps at a level and intensity he's not been at before.

"It's huge for him and I thought he stood up and tried his heart out.

"There were lots of guys there who will understand what it's like to play PREM rugby and we'll take those scars and make sure we learn from them.”

The loss of Belleau’s experience and ability just before the break clearly cost Saints dear as they were forced to put scrum-half Tom James at 10.

When asked for an update on Belleau, who was able to walk off unaided, Dowson said: “He's got a tight hamstring.”

Discussing Saints’ makeshift second-half backline, Dowson added: “You've got a nine (James) playing 10. He hasn't trained there all week so it's tough on him.

"We lost a bit of direction, we lost a bit of our edge and those are things we can definitely be better at.”

Saints will now look to bounce back when they face another cup match, at Leicester Tigers, on Friday night.

And Dowson said: “It's exactly what this tournament is about: going to tough places, learning what it takes to play at this level, learning to create consistency at this level and what a performance week at this level looks like.

"What a derby looks like will be interesting for these lads so we're excited about it.

"We know what this tournament is all about and we'll hit the next challenge as hard as we possibly can.”