'Feels really cruel' - Dowson reflects on Saints' agonising loss at Harlequins

The black, green and gold led for 64 minutes at the Twickenham Stoop, having initially taken the lead through a Tom Pearson score in the 12th minute.

But Quins, who had to do plenty of defending, eventually landed a sucker punch with four minutes to go as Cassius Cleaves' second try of the match secured a bonus-point win for the home side.

"With regards to effort and how they applied themselves, I couldn't be more proud of that group," Saints boss Dowson said. "I was delighted with how hard we worked.

"There's obviously elements we can do better. Clearly to concede so late feels really cruel.

"We need to be better defensively and there's things we can do better in attack, how we manage the game in the middle of the field, all those elements.

"There will be some big lessons coming from that game and I know people get annoyed when you talk about lessons, but that experience has been had by the likes of (Alex) Mitchell, (George) Furbank, Fin Smith in the past, and this class of players will take so much from this.

"Bitter, heartbreaking, frustrating experiences like this will stand us in good stead in the long term."

Saints were without 17 players due to injuries and international call-ups.

But Dowson wasn't prepared to use the laundry list of absences as any sort of excuse for the fifth loss in as many away league games this season.

"This is a group that's been training together throughout the season, they train exactly the same way as every other player in the group so they know how we want to play," Dowson said.

"But it's very easy doing that in training. It's Friday night, against Quins, who are in a similar situation to us in the league so therefore there's different pressures and that's where we find out about people - how much they can play and execute under pressure.

"There were definitely times in the first half when we could have turned the screw a bit more but at the same time, they (Quins) are desperate too, they're looking to climb the table as well.

"There's things we could have done defensively in terms of how we move and stop offloads. All those things we'll be talking about and working on and making sure we're better for it."