Northampton begin title defence with win over Newcastle

Northampton Saints won a second Prem title in three years in June

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

>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.

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>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.