The match had presented Saints with a unique opportunity to give several of their players some much needed gametime, while others took some equally needed rest.
Curtis Langdon was among those getting valuable minutes on the field, while the likes of Jonny Weimann and James Pater stepped up to play starting roles. Saints also handed Sonny Tonga’uiha a PREM debut and saw the return of Tom James from injury alongside Langdon.
And there was plenty to celebrate about the rugby too. Both of Weimann’s tries were record-breaking; his first took Saints’ regular season tally past 100, with Northampton becoming the first team in PREM history to accomplish that feat, and Weimann’s second moved the men in Black, Green and Gold to 104 overall – more tries than have ever been scored in a single league season including the Play-Offs.
And despite the final result, Dowson was pleased with how his side handled the opportunity ahead of their journey into the final four.
“From a performance point of view, we got loads out of it,” he said.
“We saw people in different positions. We had Jonny Weimann playing, Sonny Tonga’uiha making his PREM debut, Josh Kemeny hasn’t played a huge amount recently, neither has Tom Pearson.
“JJ van der Mescht did 80 minutes and I thought he was as good as he’s been in the past month.
“It was good to see Curtis Langdon play 60 minutes and blow some of the cobwebs off.