Coyle felt the sending-off altered the game's flow but suggested Blackburn's early decision to playdeep with a three-man central defence indicates just how far his side have come.
First Phil Dowson went on a barrelling run and then, in a passage of play that epitomised the free-flowing nature of the game, James Simpson-Daniel broke from deep for Gloucester before Saints lock Courtney Lawes stole the ball and fed Bruce Reihana.