The game marked Saints’ final friendly match-up before they head into the PREM Rugby Cup next week, beginning their campaign with a trip to Saracens on Friday (19 September, kick-off: 7.30pm).
And as such, there were several Northampton players making their first appearances of the term – such as the three try scorers in newcomer Chick and longer-term Saints Pearson and Hendy.
Of those fresh faces, Dowson said: “Lots of guys hadn’t played for a long time and it was the first game of the season for guys like Hutch (Rory Hutchinson) and Manny (Emmanuel Iyogun).
“We had guys playing for the first time like Danilo Fischetti, Chicky and Cleopas Kundiona. I thought they were all excellent and they’ve fitted in so well.”
With Saints heading firmly back into regular season rugby next week, and the Gallagher PREM season ramping up in earnest off the back of Northampton’s trip to Saracens, Dowson is hoping to welcome more players back into the fold in the coming weeks.
On selection, Dowson said: “It’s obviously injury dependent and we’ve got to get through a couple of training days, England training days as well, so we’ll wait and see how people come out of that.
“We’ll wait and see what the outcome was from this game and we’ll make a decision with all roads leading to PREM Round 1 (against Exeter Chiefs on Sunday 28 September).”