The Prem

Northampton (31) 59

Tries: Pater 3, Hendy, Freeman 3, Coles, Sleightholme Cons: F Smith 5, Belleau 2

Newcastle (14) 26

Tries: Wade 2, Jordan, Kok Cons: Connon, Henry 2

James Pater and Tommy Freeman ran in hat-tricks as Northampton Saints kicked off their title defence with a comfortable 59-26 win over new-look Newcastle Red Bulls at Franklin’s Gardens.

Just three months after securing a second Prem title against Exeter Chiefs at Allianz Stadium, Saints were dominant against a much-changed Red Bulls side who have welcomed 25 new players through the door this summer.

Three tries each for Pater and Freeman and one each for George Hendy, Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme delivered an emphatic scoreline as Saints, brilliantly conducted by fly-half Fin Smith, ran in nine tries.

Yet for all that the scoreline delivered another defeat for Newcastle they still scored four tries and came away with a losing bonus point as they hope that, for the first time in five seasons, they may not be destined for bottom place in the Prem.

Pater went over twice inside the first 15 minutes with Hendy, Freeman and Coles all following him in during a first period Northampton bossed.

But two tries from Christian Wade which were both converted – with the first a brilliant end-to-end and side-to-side score which had levelled matters early – showed Newcastle will cause problems for plenty of teams this season.

If those were the positives, two yellow cards were the balancers for the visitors. A first for a trip by Harrison Obatoyinbo and the second for a no-hands tackle under the sticks by Pouri Rakete-Stones hampered their defensive effort.

Those mistakes allowed Saints to stretch clear in the second period.

Throughout the 80 minutes the visitors had no real answer to the power and pace of Henry Pollock, who celebrated his new £400,000 contract extension not only with an eye-catching braided hairstyle but a performance which justified it all.

Pollock was not alone in hitting the ground running with Smith superb and Freeman and Pater ruthless.

Freeman completed his hat-trick with two second-half tries either side of Cam Jordan’s first for Newcastle, after signing from Gloucester in the summer.

Sleightholme pounced just seconds after coming on as a substitute and the impressive Pater rounded off the win with his own hat-trick.

However, the impressively mobile Werner Kok scored a consolation late on to ensure Newcastle left with a bonus point to their name.

Northampton Saints’ Tommy Freeman told BBC Radio Northampton:

“Good start and lots of points on the board which good to see but I think there is loads more in us which is what we said at half-time, but overall a good result.

“Our set piece we need to tighten up a bit on that first phase. Defensively we were caught a bit tight, but credit to Newcastle for stressing us in those areas but we would like to see better movement.

“It is always a challenge and going back-to-back [titles] is not done by many teams. There is a reason for that but we will be looking to take each week as it comes and keep putting our DNA on the pitch.”

Newcastle head coach Dan McFarland told BBC Radio Newcastle:

“We put a lot of good stuff out there but we were tested today by a really, really good team. We know where we stand now and where we’ve got to work. We have a long jounrey ahead of us and that was the first step.

“It was a fantastic score when we had a length of the field try and that was really us and we also had a lot of defensive sets where we had showed really good scramble and stopped them from scoring.

“But the game is up and down. We had that yellow card and then we had three tries which were scored during that yellow, and the try just before half-time was a real killer.

“Maybe we left a couple of tries out there but there is plenty in that that we will take away and see as a real positive.”

Northampton: Pater, Freeman, Hutchinson, Dingwall, Hendy, F Smith, McParland, Iyogun, Langdon, Kundiona, Coles, Prowse, Kemeny, Pollock, Chick

Replacements: R Smith, Fischetti, Neculai, Lockett, Taylor, Mitchell, Belleau, Sleightholme.

Newcastle: Obatoyinbo, Wade, Hearle, Harris, Kok, Connon, Elliott, Rakete-Stones, McGuigan, Millar Mills, Usher, Jordan, Hicks, Christie, Graham.

Replacements: Fletcher, West, Harper, Molina, Leatherbarrow, Cruz, Henry, Sotutu.

Sin bin: Obatoyinbo (14), Rakete-Stones (43)

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe.