'It's not acceptable' - Dowson reflects on record Saints defeat

The 62-8 demolition beat the previous records, which were 50-point losses against Saracens in 2018 and Exeter Chiefs in 2020.

It was also Bristol's biggest Premiership win on a night when the Bears racked up an eye-watering nine tries.

And Saints boss Dowson said: "I'm not entirely sure I can find the words, but it was a humbling experience.

"It's not acceptable and we've just been told that's our record defeat in the Premiership so something's not quite working in that space.

"We need to make sure we rectify it very, very quickly.

"Clearly conceding 62 points and nine tries was one of the issues, and another was that when we started the game quite brightly, we didn't convert it.

"Defending and converting pressure would be the first two things I'd point to on first viewing.

"I just spoke to Fraser Dingwall and he felt that when they got scores ahead, our heads were down and that's not something we've encountered a lot.

"We've always battled, we've shown that we can come back from deficits before, but that wasn't apparent today.

"It's pretty quiet in the dressing room and nobody wants to be associated with that. None of those players want to have their fingerprints on that record, but they do.

"They're going to have to deal with it, I'm going to have to deal with it as a DOR (director of rugby) and come to terms with it.

"We simply have to be better than that."

Saints had gone into the game having won their past three Premiership matches, which propelled them up to third in the league.

But they had no answers on a night when Bristol were too hot to handle.

"We didn't turn up at times," Dowson said.

"We started well but then dropped off and stopped.

"We've seen throughout the season our capability, but we've also seen the chinks in our armour as well. It was exposed brutally today."

Saints were missing 14 players for the game, with five unavailable because of England's Six Nations training camp.

But Dowson wasn't willing to hide behind key absences.

"That sounds like a big fat excuse and I'm not going to go down that road," he said.

With a play-off place still very much up for grabs, Saints will seek a big response at home to Bath next Friday.

"They're all big games, tonight was a big game and we blew it," Dowson said.

"The next thing we can affect is our response, our reaction and how we go against Bath.

"The players will be good for it (a reaction). They're proud lads and they want to represent themselves.

"That wasn't a representation of what I think we're about as a club, and we need to rectify it quickly."