Saints conceded four tries at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens as they fell to a third successive defeat in Pool A.

“We weren't a million miles away at the end, but we just gave away too many points,” he said. We defend for long periods of time, and a lot of the time we do it well, but eventually some of that pressure tells and when we get into those attacking spaces we don't make as much of it.

"We need to improve - and we need to improve quickly week to week. We need to make sure we're better in scenarios where we can exert pressure.”

And Dowson says they can start to address the issue on the training ground – but the players will need to learn from their losses.

“It's about training it, understanding what you need to do and then training it under pressure again and again until you can't get it wrong.

"It's very hard to recreate scenarios midweek because the injury risk and fatigue mean you don't want to create that pressure physically, but you do have to try to create it and offer those opportunities.

“But the best and hardest way to learn is in games like today. Ulster are a physical, direct team and their forwards go route one and our boys stood up.

“A lot of the time we put good defensive sets in and didn't give away too many dumb penalties, but we've come out on the wrong side so we need to be better.”

Northampton Saints coach Phil Dowson called on his side to be less generous hosts – and suggested they handed Ulster Rugby a 24-20 victory in Round 3 of the Heineken Champions Cup.