Freeman and Pater inspire Northampton to opening win against Newcastle

The new season is up and running and so are the defending champions. Northampton’s attacking game was wonderfully slick at times in this nine-try dismissal of Newcastle Red Balls and here was an opening night warning to all their rivals that they are serious about becoming the first club for seven years to win consecutive Prem titles.

There is a huge amount of rugby to be played, clearly, between now and next June but on this evidence their fast-moving backs are once again going to take a lot of stopping. There were a brace of hat-tricks for the classy Tommy Freeman and the exciting teenager James Pater while George Hendy also wasted no time underlining his claims for an England squad place.

Up front, Emmanuel Iyogun also had the kind of game that will further endear him to the national management. Even a stronger Newcastle outfit, with ambitions to escape the league’s basement this year, found themselves repeatedly sliced open although the Red Bulls did show more in the way of energy and ambition than has generally been the case in recent times.

Christian Wade added a couple more tries to his sizeable career collection but at no stage did his team look like overturning the early season odds. Northampton could even afford for the headline-loving Henry Pollock to have a relatively quiet night, give or take a searing second half break and a flutter of pre-game social media interest about his latest choice of hairdo.

Only those recently beamed down from Mars will be unaware that Pollock has linked up with the boxing promoter Eddie Hearn and the sight of him warming up in a headguard prior to a ‘big reveal’ of his new braided hairstyle was merely a latest attention-seeking gimmick. Rather more significant is that he delivers on the field and, fortunately for the flanker, there is no shortage of collective talent around him.

Among the more intriguing new faces is Pater, skinny as a rake but with the priceless sporting gifts of rare anticipation and vision. There was a very good reason why Saints, in the end, were prepared to bid farewell to George Furbank and here it was for all to admire on a cool, still autumn evening. The 19-year-old full-back picked a lovely delayed line for his first try on the left and was again in precisely the right place at the right time to touch down again with the Red Bulls temporarily down to 14 men.

The visitors did score a nice early try, finished by the ever-sharp Wade, but Harrison Obatoyinbo being sent to the sin-bin for a gratuitous trip coincided with the Saints locating another gear. First Hendy came thundering through the defensive line to finish a textbook strike play from a lineout and then, with the cover further stretched by Pollock and Pater, there was a juggling score for Freeman to secure a try bonus point after just 24 minutes.

When they play the angles so cutely it is almost impossible to stop last season’s title winners indefinitely, despite their relative lack of mountainous specimens up front. Archie McParland missed out on an England summer tour spot through injury but looked a seriously classy player here while, in front of him, the newly capped Iyogun made his presence felt with an excellent turnover and a thumping hit on Obatoyinbo.

To Newcastle’s credit they did at least stick at it, Wade further underlining his try poaching ability with another slick finish in the right corner. Northampton, though, are primed to strike at any moment and did so again when Fraser Dingwall put the galloping Alex Coles away to make it 31-14 at half-time.

On Newcastle’s last visit to this stadium in March they lost by only 28-27 but the only question in the second half here was the size of the home winning margin. There are exciting things in the pipeline for the Red Bulls, whose financial outlook has now been transformed, but this was a reminder that instant success in rugby is hard to buy, regardless of the funds available.

They were at least able to wheel on Hoskins Sotutu, the England-qualified former All Black, whose early league form will be closely scrutinised by Steve Borthwick, and add further tries through lock Cam Jordan and Werner Kok but the last quarter was otherwise dominated by more free-wheeling Saints ambition. Freeman, refreshed after his summer break, completed his hat-trick in the 61st minute before Ollie Sleightholme took his side to their half century.

Pater, fittingly, had the final word to cap a highly promising night for both himself and his club. Phil Dowson and Sam Vesty have made a point of stressing that Northampton are looking to improve further this season and they still have a few injured forwards to return. There will be tougher assignments than this ahead of them but the green machine looks to be moving smoothly through the gears already.