Northampton had to make two late changes before the game with England fly-half Fin Smith unable to play because of a calf injury – Anthony Belleau took his place despite a serious mouth injury suffered against Harlequins the previous weekend – and a hamstring problem sidelined James Ramm.
They also had prop Danilo Fischetti and centre Rory Hutchinson sin-binned in the first half and there was no way back from a 24-7 deficit at the interval, despite running in four tries of their own – two of them from Pollock, who was also booed in their opening pool game at Pau.
“We spent 20 minutes of the first half down to 14 men and that makes it very, very difficult, particularly with the quality they have,” said Dowson.
“That was a tough start and the set-piece was clearly under some pressure. But we want to be at the top table, we want to be challenged by these teams because that’s where we’re going to learn the most and we’ll take tons out of that.”
Northampton had won their five previous games in all competitions, but conceded eight tries, including hat-tricks for Salesi Rayasi and Cameron Woki.
“It’s hard to draw conclusions immediately, other than to say we weren’t quite at it in certain areas, and against very good sides, that’s what happens (sometimes).
“That [Fischetti sin-binning] obviously gave them a foothold but that’s not necessarily the whole game, there were lots of times they counter-attacked off turnover ball and bits and pieces like that – I don’t think that’s the whole story, obviously it’s disappointing in the first 10-15 minutes – but credit to the scrum to rectify that and get us onto a solid footing at set-pieces,” Dowson added.
Northampton are third in pool four and round off the Champions Cup group stage at home to Scarlets, who have lost all three games so far, on Sunday (15:15 GMT).
Saints still have a chance of finishing second which would give them a home game in the round of 16.
