Tommy Freeman: Northampton must ‘right some wrongs’, says England back

Director of rugby Phil Dowson said Northampton needed to look back “forensically” at the Leicester game to assess exactly why that performance happened.

“There’s loads of context around it,” he told BBC Radio Northampton.

“We’re a playing group, with a playing style, that requires a high level of connection and cohesiveness and we didn’t have any of that – I think nine of the group hadn’t trained together because of international duty and injuries, and we looked particularly rusty.

“At the same time, we looked very stressed and worried about what we were trying to do and that led to so many uncharacteristic errors in terms of skill execution, and we need to de-stress what we’re trying to do and make sure we get our game on the pitch because we don’t want that to be a reflection of us.”

Dowson accepted that many Saints supporters were unhappy with the manner of their defeat by Leicester.

“It’s not just the supporters who it’s tough for,” he added. “It’s a blot on all our records, a blot on my reputation and the reputation of the players and it’s my responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen again because it’s not acceptable.

“I appreciate the fans are upset, but they can’t possibly be more upset than a coaching group that is so emotionally invested and a playing group that kill themselves week in, week out to perform for the club.”