Sell-out crowd will 'feed' Saints against Saracens

Phil Dowson became Northampton's director of rugby in 2022 having joined the club's coaching staff in 2017

Northampton Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson says the sell-out crowd at Franklin's Gardens for Friday's Premiership semi-final against Saracens will help "feed" his players' performance.

Despite losing their final match of the regular season to Bath, Saints finished the campaign top of the Premiership table, securing home advantage for the meeting with defending champions Sarries.

A crowd of more than 15,000 will be watching on and Dowson says the home support should have a big effect.

"They will be flying on the back of the noise and the atmosphere and the crowd are very, very good at generating that," he told BBC Radio Northampton.

"When we talk about the energy and intent, that really does feed the boys."

It will the first home Premiership semi-final for the Saints since 2015 and will be hoping to get one step closer to lifting the trophy a decade after winning their only Premiership title - when they beat Saracens in a thriller at Twickenham.

Dowson says he wants his side to focus on how well they've played this season, underlining the importance of "making sure we know what we've done to get here" as well as not "worrying too much" about Saracens' star-studded line-up which includes departing Owen Farrell potentially playing his final match for the club.

The Saints were beaten by Leinster at this stage in their European Rugby Champions Cup campaign earlier this year, but Dowson believes his younger players can take notes from the experienced members of the group to get them over the line this time.

"Those younger players will learning every single time we go into a knock-out game," he said.

"There's players who have tons of experience and they are going to help via their communication and their body language with some of those other guys who might be a bit nervous and vice versa.

"The guys that are doing this for the first time will bring a ton of energy for the guys who have been around the block so it's a real nice balance within the group."

The winner will play Bath or Sale, who meet in the other semi-final on Saturday, in the Premiership final at Twickenham on 8 June.