{"id":489778,"date":"2026-03-22T19:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T19:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/489778\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T19:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T19:55:14","slug":"phil-dowson-frustrated-over-part-of-saints-game-that-didnt-go-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/489778\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Dowson frustrated over part of Saints’ game that ‘didn\u2019t go well’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Northampton<\/a> director of rugby Phil Dowson<\/a> was frustrated by his side\u2019s efforts as they picked up a narrow 28-27 Gallagher Prem victory over bottom club Newcastle<\/a> in a compelling but disjointed contest at Franklin\u2019s Gardens.<\/p>\n

The bonus-point win took Saints back to the top of the table but for large parts of the game the visitors were the better side and with more accurate goal-kicking \u2013 and a couple of refereeing decisions going their way \u2013 they would surely have triumphed.<\/p>\n

Archie McParland, Ollie Sleightholme<\/a>, Curtis Langdon<\/a> and Tom Litchfield<\/a> scored Northampton\u2019s tries, with Anthony Belleau<\/a> successful with all four conversions.<\/p>\n

In reply, Harrison Obatoyinbo<\/a>, Ollie Leatherbarrow<\/a>, Simon Benitez Cruz<\/a> and Tom Christie<\/a> crossed over for the away side, with Brett Connon<\/a> adding two conversions and a penalty.<\/p>\n

Dowson said: \u201cIt was very tense throughout as we couldn\u2019t get away from them as they got stuck into us and stopped us from playing.<\/p>\n

\"Team Match Summary \"Team <\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience will be invaluable for some of the younger players but we understand now what\u2019s coming round the corner each week for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t fault the hard work of the boys but it\u2019s frustrating as our set-piece didn\u2019t go well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result our discipline suffered and we failed to take scoring opportunities, especially in the first part of the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newcastle\u2019s newly-appointed head coach Stephen Jones<\/a> was delighted with his side\u2019s efforts as they battled against their opponents.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019m wonderfully proud of the boys and delighted with some of the rugby we played.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fronted up in the collisions and had good attacking threats to create a lot of opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever we need to be technically better to finish them off and we are fully aware that we need to continue to improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo pick up two yellow cards was disappointing and we need to review that in an attempt to get that out of the game but we were exceptionally smart in dealing with that sin-bin period.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t comment on some of the refereeing decisions as I\u2019d like to see them and review them in detail.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson was frustrated by his side\u2019s efforts as they picked up a narrow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-489778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}