By PAUL REES

Phil Dowson will spend part of his summer holiday examining how other sports operate as he looks to steer Northampton into the top two next season.
The Saints finished fourth in Dowson’s first campaign after succeeding Chris Boyd as director of rugby, losing to Saracens in the semi-final having had the most potent attack in the regular season as well as the leakiest defence.
“I love going anywhere to see what other people are doing behind the scenes,” said Dowson. “I have been to the Bulls in Pretoria, the LA Kings in ice hockey and I had a week last summer in Oregon after b...