Dowson insists Saints have 'got the game to trouble anyone'

But he knows just how big the challenge will be when the black, green and gold take on 'European royalty' at Croke Park on Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm).

Gallagher Premiership table-toppers Saints will be up against Leinster, who are odds-on favourites to reach the Investec Champions Cup final for a third successive season.

And Dowson insists his side believe they can prevail this weekend.

"We're in a very competitive sport where we think we've got the game to trouble anyone," Dowson said.

"What we talk about all the time is not winning or losing or the result, we talk about performance and we want to push at Croke Park this weekend against a really good group to put the very best performance we can put on the pitch.

"And I would like to think that would trouble anyone."

On Leinster, who have lost to La Rochelle in each of the previous two Champions Cup finals, Dowson said: "They're an incredible team with incredible history.

"They're European royalty really.

"I count Stuart Lancaster (who was senior coach at Leinster for seven years before leaving to join Racing 92 last summer) as one of my mentors so his impact there has been huge.

"They seem to go from strength to strength so it's an impressive setup, one we can learn a lot from, but also one we want to get stuck into.

"They are very high skill, very technical but also incredibly powerful with the athletic ability of their forward pack to move the ball and carry hard.

"Their set piece is excellent.

"In Jamison Gibson-Park they've got one of the best nines in the world, and they've got plenty of talent behind the scrum as well."

Saints know that if they don't start fast this weekend, they could quickly find themselves submerged by a blue wave.

And Dowson said: "We need to be right up there from an intensity point of view, but we need to make sure we get our game on the pitch.

"We can't expect to do everything perfectly and there are going to be times we're under massive pressure, undoubtedly. There are going to be periods of time where we have to dig in and get by.

"There's also going to be periods of time when we put them under pressure as well and we have a good swing at them.

"It doesn't have to be 10/10 but it has to be very intense.

"What we want to do is get stuck into the game and make sure we don't wait to see what Leinster are doing.

"We want to make sure we get stuck in from the word go, and if we do that then I've got no doubts we'll be right in amongst it.

"We want to show who we are, what it means to us as a group and also the stuff we've been working on from a rugby point of view, not just this season but previous seasons with the core group.

"It's a great reward for all the work we've done in Europe this season and we want to make sure that opportunity is not lost on us.

"We want to go out and get stuck in."

While Leinster have completely rested their main men during the past couple of weeks, Saints go into the game on the back of a 41-32 defeat to Harlequins at Twickenham last Saturday.

"We would have loved to have got a better performance out of it and continued our momentum, but there's lots of very good sides out there and it's supposed to be tough so we need to make sure some of those things we didn't quite execute last weekend, we have to be better at this weekend," Dowson said.

"It's a great sharpener for the mind, going into this game.

"It's going to be fantastic, and I can't wait for it.

"It's exactly why we're playing the game, to play in these iconic venues and being very privileged to do so.

"Not many teams have played there and also to play in those cauldrons of Europe.

"This is what this group of players has yearned for - and now we've got to go and grab it with both hands."

Saints have given their players a Croke Park history lesson this week.

Dowson explained: "We're acutely aware of the historical and cultural significance of Croke Park to the independence of Ireland.

"It's not lost on us so we want to respect that by pushing as hard as we possibly can and competing with Leinster as best we can.

"We have to be really aware of that and the significance that has to the Irish psyche and also what it will do to Leinster by galvanising that group.

"But at the same time, we're there to play rugby and it's a great rugby pitch and stadium.

"We're playing against 15 lads wearing blue and we've got to make sure we get our attitude right in terms of challenging them."