Phil Dowson is not planning any major changes to the way he approaches the game after stepping up as Northampton Saints director of rugby.

Saints began pre-season with a 40-26 victory over Bedford Blues.

“I’ve learnt a lot from the DoRs I played under and coached with so it’s just a slight change of routine,” Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton.

“You get into certain habits and I immediately went over to watch the lineout which I don’t necessarily need to do (any more).

“I hope I’d be relatively authentic but I might curtail what I say (on occasions) or I might ask questions about elements of the game that I wouldn’t normally, whether it’s attack or backs play, I’d be really interested in expanding my knowledge on that.”

Saints are next in action against Ospreys on Friday as they build towards the start of the new Premiership campaign, away to Sale Sharks on 9 September.

“We want to make sure we’re getting better each week so we’re ready to perform full-on against Sale,” said Dowson, who was impressed by the performances of the club’s new signings, especially Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, James Ramm, Angus Scott-Young and Robbie Smith.

“It’s great for all those guys to experience Franklin’s Gardens – all of them commented on the quality of the pitch, all of them commented on the size of the crowd in pre-season, all of them looked comfortable in the shirt and look like they belong here and understand what it means to be a Saint.”

Northampton reached the play-offs last season before losing to eventual champions Leicester Tigers and they are looking to hit the ground running this term.

“You can only really see the value of a pre-season when you start playing the Premiership games, the things you maybe should have done differently and the things you still need to work on,” Dowson added.

“We won’t know the quality of our pre-season until we’ve played four or five games in the Premiership but in terms of the attitude and application, both of the playing group and the support staff, it’s been absolutely phenomenal. The commitment has been fantastic.”