The Premiership round one trend that 'surprised' Phil Dowson

Losing on the opening round weekend of the Gallagher Premiership is nothing new for Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson. His Saints defeat at Bath was the third season in succession they have been beaten in round one.

It’s not a pretty away day sequence for the Franklin’s Gardens club: losing at Bath 16-38 last Friday, losing 15-20 at Sale last October, and also losing at Sale again 22-29 in September 2022.

Not since they hosted Gloucester in September 2021 and won 34-20 have they had reason to smile on the opening weekend in England. However, while losing first up wasn’t a strange happening for Dowson, he revealed that one particular thing left him surprised across round one – the lack of scoring in general.

‘That Manie Libbok kick will follow him’ | RPTV

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‘That Manie Libbok kick will follow him’ | RPTV

The Boks Office crew react to South Africa’s one-point loss to Argentina, with all to play for in Nelspruit this coming weekend. Watch the full show on RugbyPass TV

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Just 196 points were collectively scored by the 10 teams, down from last season’s 266, and the try count also suffered, dropping to 24 compared to last year’s 37.

Drilling into those stats, six teams scored 17 points or less last weekend – including Northampton with 16 – in contrast to just three teams scoring 15 or less last term, including Saints who managed only 15 at Sale.

What gives? “I was surprised how low scoring it was,” said Dowson, the 2023/24 Premiership title winner, when asked by RugbyPass ahead of this Saturday’s round two game at home to Exeter if any quirks or trends stood out to him across the opening five matches in the 2024/25 Premiership.

“The Sale-Quins game was fairly low scoring (it ended 12-11 to Sharks). It was 3-0 at half-time in the Leicester game (they eventually won 17-14 at Exeter). This time last season there was huge scores being pushed around, so I was a little surprised at that. But it’s early days. We had a relatively short pre-season so we’ll see a bit more continuity over the next couple of weeks.”

Is that it, just a lack of time on-pitch? “Yeah, I think so. Last season you had five PRC [Premiership Rugby Cup] games before the league started and you get guys into rhythm and you get guys into some shape.

“This time, we have had two pre-season games, Bath had three. Pre-season games are always slightly different because of the extended benches and stuff so yeah, we will begin to see a bit more flow as the games go on.”