'Frustrating and disappointing' - Dowson rues Saints' porous defending in defeat to Harlequins

But the black, green and gold boss would not be drawn into the controversial events of the day, which included a disallowed Sam Graham try and a decision not to award a second yellow card to Danny Care, who appeared to come off his feet to kill the ball during the second half.

Saints were up against 14 men three times during the match as Care, Louis Lynagh and Tyrone Green were all sin-binned.

But Dowson’s side struggled to make territory pay, while Quins were far more ruthless as they racked up scores for fun in a 41-32 success.

And Dowson said: "Clearly I would have liked to have conceded fewer points. That's frustrating and disappointing.

"I said before the game about how dangerous Quins are, and we didn't manage to contain them.

"There was a lot going on in that break of play. Karl (Dickson) and the TMO (Andrew Jackson) have had a good look at it (the Danny Care incident) and they've deemed that Danny Care pushing James Ramm and diving on the ball wasn't a yellow card offence.

"They had a lot of yellow cards and we didn't capitalise, even without that, and when they got opportunities in our half, they did (capitalise) and that was fundamentally the difference.

"Throughout the first half, we didn't get much set piece on the field and that's credit to Quins for slowing us down. When we did get opportunities, there's three or four times we're on their line and we either dropped the ball or didn't convert, or there was that little knock-on from Mitch as adjudged by Karl.

"So we left points out there, we didn't convert chances, particularly in the first half, and when they had chances, they were very, very clinical.

"There will be a lot to take from it. There will be some similarities (to Leinster) in the way they play and the way they challenge the defensive line, so there will be loads that we can do as a group to be better this time next week, and we have to be."