Dowson salutes Saints for overcoming Dublin hangover with huge win against Gloucester

The black, green and gold racked up a massive 14 tries as the Cherry and Whites endured a sobering experience in a 90-0 defeat.

Saints went into the game knowing a bonus-point win would provide them with a home Gallagher Premiership play-off semi-final for the first time since 2015 - and they delivered.

They had endured late agony again Leinster in the Investec Champions Cup semi-final a week earlier, but they bounced back in sublime style.

Dowson said: "There's two sides with different motivations. Obviously Gloucester have got a European final in a couple of weeks at Tottenham and we were pushing to get a bonus point to guarantee us a home semi.

"One of the things we spoke about was keeping it in house, not worrying too much about what Gloucester were going to do.

"We had to get over the hangover, literally and figuratively, of Dublin and make sure we moved on and we knew what was at stake this afternoon. I thought the players did that exceptionally well.

"We went after some very simple focuses and we got that in spades.

"The language the players were using at half-time was very positive in terms of staying on page, being ruthless, being relentless and we saw that particularly in the second half with the bench coming on."

Following the game, Saints held a leavers ceremony as the likes of Courtney Lawes and Alex Waller were presented with shirts as they will leave the club this summer.

It was an emotional event as the Saints supporters serenaded some of their club's legends.

And Dowson said: "It shows how much they've given to the club, how strongly they feel about the club.

"Obviously things change and people move on so it's good to give them the send-off they deserve.

"It's an opportunity to take stock and say goodbye, while also knowing that there's still a minimum of two games to go to make sure we keep our season on track and keep the momentum going."