Dowson explains what made Mallinder such a good Saints boss
Phil Dowson has hailed Jim Mallinder after the former Saints boss was named as the next inductee in the Northampton Hall of Fame.
Established in 2004, the Hall of Fame dinner is a cherished tradition, honouring those who have made an extraordinary impact in black, green and gold.
After a three-year hiatus, it will return to the Gardens on November 20, with Mallinder the man set to be honoured as he becomes the first inductee of 2025.
Mallinder will join club legends such as Keith Barwell OBE, Ian Hunter, Steve Thompson, Albert Orton, Blair Swannell, Freddie Blakiston, Peter Larter and Barry Oldham in the Saints Hall of Fame.
And the recognition is deserved reward for a man who brought such success to Saints as the club's director of rugby between 2007 and 2017.
The former Sale Sharks and England international joined Saints in 2007 following relegation from the English top division during the previous season.
In his first campaign in charge, he took the black, green and gold straight back into the Premiership in an undefeated season.
The 2009/10 season brought the first major domestic trophy of his tenure, winning the Anglo-Welsh Cup, as well as a Premiership semi-final and European quarter-final.
The illustrious Premiership title came for Mallinder’s Saints side in the 2013/14 season after beating Saracens in extra-time, as well as winning the European Challenge Cup, which represented a historic double.
Mallinder’s tenure saw the likes of Ben Foden, Courtney Lawes, and Tom Wood become club legends and leave a lasting legacy in Northampton.
Dowson was also a huge part of Mallinder's playing squad that claimed the memorable double and he has since gone on to enjoy huge success as Saints director or rugby.
Dowson steered Saints to Premiership glory in 2024 and to the Investec Champions Cup final earlier this year.
And this week, he has been speaking about what made Mallinder such a special man to play for and learn from.
"Jim was very, very honest and very direct," Dowson said.
"He understood what the playing group enjoyed and what the playing group needed.
"His clarity and connection with that playing group was very, very strong.
"He had a lot of lads there who deeply respected him and wanted to play for him."
Dowson clearly took a lot from his playing days under Mallinder at Saints, using that wisdom, as well as what he learned from opposition players, to help shape his own career on and off the field.
"When I played, I tried to take something from players I'd played against or watched and tried to improve my game based on that," Dowson said.
"I'd try to steal ideas and I've done exactly the same in terms of how people run their coaching environment.
"Clearly Jim (Mallinder) would be a big one, Chris Boyd was a huge mentor, Stuart Lancaster, Dean Ryan - all the people I was very lucky to have played for and coached with.
"I think you can learn something from everyone and try to adapt your game to continually improve."
Dowson has also been keen to learn from key figures in sports other than rugby union.
He explained: "Lots of sports are very different in what's being done with the ball on the pitch, but actually from a mindset and competition point of view, there are so many similarities, so I love going in to see how different people do it.
"As a coaching group, we're always talking about how we want to improve the players, but from a coaching point of view and a management point of view we are trying to improve as well and we get really good insight from different sports."