'They will smell blood' - Dowson looks ahead to Saints' clash with Bath

Fourth-placed Saints are coming into the game on the back of their record Premiership defeat, having shipped nine tries in a 62-8 thrashing at Bristol Bears last Friday.

Bath are currently bottom of the Gallagher Premiership table, having won just four of their 15 league matches this season, but one of those victories came at home to Saints in October.

And Dowson said: "Bath are desperate, they've got a new system in place with Johann van Graan and they've got a lot of talented players.

"At some point, that will click and they will start causing lots of problems.

"We lost (27-14) down there so we know it's going to be a huge challenge.

"They will smell blood in terms of what happened last Friday and we need to make sure we respond appropriately."

Saints had headed to Bristol on the back of a three-match Premiership winning streak, but they were humbled on a night when the Bears reignited their play-off push.

And Dowson feels that shocking showing should serve as a reminder for Saints that they should take nothing for granted this week.

He said: "Bristol have been in the lower half of the table for most of the season and you see what they're capable of with the characters they have when they have lots of players back fit.

"If you give them time and space, they can be incredibly dangerous - and Bath are the same.

"The result down there we had loads of opportunity and we didn't convert any of it.

"Since then, we've actually been better at it. We weren't at Bristol in the first 20 minutes but we've been working on it and we know those elements.

"There's never been any lack of effort. There's been a lack of direction at times in what we've been trying to do.

"There's been a lack of discipline in terms of sticking to plans and not giving penalties away, and we were a little bit guilty of that away to Bath."