By PAUL REES

Premiership clubs get their season underway this weekend with Northampton’s director of rugby Phil Dowson looking confident that the gloom that has settled in the last 12 months after the collapse of three clubs and more England woe will lift.
The first five weeks of the campaign will see the top flight and Championship clubs take part in the group stage of the Premiership Rugby Cup with the league campaign kicking off next month on the weekend of the World Cup quarter-finals.
“It has not been a good look,” said Dowson, who is holding Northampton’s reins for a second season. ...