'We haven't been good enough' - Dowson discusses Saints' away-day struggles

And he says there has been a big focus among the coaches and senior players this week to work out exactly why their record is so poor.

Saints have won just two of their 10 away matches in all competitions, beating Newcastle Falcons in the Premiership Rugby Cup and winning at Wasps in the Gallagher Premiership.

But that Wasps victory counted for nothing as the Coventry-based club went into administration, meaning the points were wiped from the Premiership table.

Saints should have won at Saracens back in November but surrendered a 39-17 lead to lose 45-39, having been hit by two second-half sin-binnings.

And their performances on the road since then have left a lot to be desired as they have been beaten by big margins at Gloucester, La Rochelle and, last weekend, Exeter Chiefs.

"We've spent a bit of time this week talking about that as a coaching group and with the senior players, then delivering it to the group with a plan to win games away from home," Dowson said.

"We haven't been good enough at it and we haven't performed well enough to earn that privilege.

"We'll keep plugging away at things we can do, both tactically and enviromentallly in different ways but we're looking to improve drastically in those areas."

Saints were 21-0 down by half-time last Saturday as Exeter Chiefs made the most of errors and ill discipline from the black, green and gold.

"We were very disappointed," Dowson said.

"We played really well against Quins the week before but we were poor last weekend. We made a lot of errors, particularly in the first half, and a side that was as charged up as Exeter, they dominated.

"We made a number of unforced errors and we fed their energy.

"Being 21-0 down at half-time is not ideal."

Things don't get any easier for Saints this weekend as they travel to take on a stubborn Munster side at Thomond Park.

So how exactly can Saints end their barren away run against a team who won 17-6 at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens last month?

"We need to starve them of the opportunities that they want," Dowson said.

"We didn't do that last weekend at Exeter and we gave them chances five or 10 metres out, which they're very good at turning into points.

"We need to do better at Munster and reduce their opportunities to score, and also put our game on the park but do it in such a way so we're not risking everything for the reward we want out there.

"Playing away is tough, you're not going to go to many places and blow them away, so we've got to understand how to manage the game and get our game on the field.

"We've got to understand how to manage the away crowd and do all these different things, which we haven't been doing so far."

Saints' balance between risk and reward hasn't seemed to be right on the road on many occasions this season.

But Dowson said: "We don't really see them as risks because we train them and we try to make sure the decisions are good decisions and they take into context the score, the time in the game, the referee, the opposition and all those different things.

"We try to take a lot of that risk out but at the moment that's clearly not working so we have to do something different."