'We weren't present' - Dowson shocked by Saints' first-half showing against Bath

The black, green and gold went in at half-time 35-19 down as Bath racked up five tries.

The men from the west country added a sixth score to their tally five minutes into the second period, but Saints finally summoned a response - and what a response it was.

Dowson's side roared back from 42-19 behind to win it as Tommy Freeman's sensational hat-trick try 10 minutes from time proved crucial.

But the Saints boss was in no mood to celebrate during his post-match interview.

"How we started as a playing group and a coaching group, we know that's not acceptable," Dowson said.

"We didn't seem present and we had a very disappointing first half.

"We showed lots of character to come back, fair play for that, but first half we were very, very disappointing.

"I'm really shocked because that's not really been on the cards during pre-season. We've had great energy, we've had great enthusiasm and I didn't see much of that during the first half.

"We got bullied in the first half, we got rolled over and I'm going to have to work out where that's come from and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Saints recruited a new defence coach during the summer, with Lee Radford drafted in.

But Dowson feels the players did not do Radford's work justice with their first-half display.

He said: "What's unfair about that first half is that any performance is a reflection of the input the players are getting - they only respond to what we're giving them.

"Radders is doing a fantastic job emotionally and technically to put us in a really good position and we just didn't see any of that in the first half.

"It's really disappointing because the really frustrating thing, as a Saints player, coach and fan, is that we know we can do it.

"We showed in the second half that we can do it, and we can do it really well.

"Radders was really upset and disappointed about that first half - and he said as much.

"I think you saw the response from the lads in the second half. You saw what we have been training and what we are about. We saw a performance.

"We showed we had some heart, we got some momentum back and we showed we cared about each other and cared about what we were trying to do.

"The result isn't the be-all and end-all. It helps to show what we can do and achieve, but we always talk about the performance - that's where all the results come from - and on another day, in bigger games, it's going to hurt us."

Dowson says mindset will be key for Saints this season as they look to put the previous campaign's defensive woes behind them.

He added: "It's all about mindset and we've shown we can do it. We've shown in the past two seasons, there's days where we can do it.

"But we didn't turn up in the first half and I'm sure there's fans leaving the ground today saying 'they didn't turn up in the first half' - and we didn't.

"As director of rugby, I've got to work out why and I've got to make sure we start turning up for 80 minutes.

"I'm getting bored of talking about it."