Friday’s opening night of the Prem Rugby season sees defending champions Northampton Saints and Bath post crushing wins over Newcastle Red Bulls and Harlequins…

Northampton Saints 59-26 Newcastle Red Bulls

Tommy Freeman and James Pater scored hat-tricks as Northampton, the reigning Prem champions, took advantage of a favourable opening fixture to record a convincing victory over last season’s bottom club.

Since the end of last season, Newcastle Red Bulls have recruited extensively and they did show signs of improvement but it was a tough ask against a side making a statement of their intention to fiercely defend their title.

Tries from George Hendy, Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme took Saints’ tally to nine with Fin Smith adding five conversions and Anthony Belleau two.

Christian Wade scored two tries for the visitors to take his Premiership tally to 95 – just six behind the record holder Chris Ashton. Cam Jordan and Werner Kok were the other try-scorers with two conversions coming from Zack Henry and one from Brett Connon.

The opening night of the Prem Rugby season also saw Henry Pollock in action for the first time since signing his new £400,000-a-year contract, and he emerged for kick-off sporting a cornrows hairstyle.

Harlequins 17-33 Bath

Santi Carreras produced a wonder try as Bath exploited the absence of Harlequins’ England contingent to launch their Gallagher Prem title challenge with a 33-17 victory at The Stoop.

Carreras stopped a certain try by kicking a final pass destined for Cadan Murley while it was in mid-air, darting forwards to catch the ball and then winning the foot race that began just outside his own 22.

It was a unique score from the Argentina full-back that mixed skill and athleticism and crucially it came in the 32nd minute as Harlequins looked to capitalise on the threats created by their high-tempo attack.

While Bath produced fewer thrills, they entered the interval 28-10 ahead with their line-out maul an important weapon and they also finished the stronger of the sides once Quins had run out of steam.

Marcus Smith, Alex Dombrandt, Fin Baxter and George Furbank were missing through injury, leaving Murley and Chandler Cunningham-South as the last men standing from Quins’ England contingent.

Team USA’s hopes of an 11th consecutive Presidents Cup win suffered a major setback after the Internationals produced a stunning foursomes session sweep to build a shock 7-3 lead.

The United States have never been beaten on home soil in the biennial contest and have won 13 of the previous 15 editions, although now find themselves behind after an impressive Friday performance from Geoff Ogilvy’s International Team at Medinah.

Canadian duo Corey Conners and Nick Taylor held off world No 1 Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns to claim a 1up win in the top match, having already seen Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im despatch Russell Henley and Jacob Bridgeman 3&2.

Open champion Ryan Fox partnered Min Woo Lee to a final-hole win over Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark, before Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Adam Scott wrapped up a 3&2 win over Justin Thomas and Wyndham Clark.

Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim then claimed their second win as many days with a 4&3 win over Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, the second successive Presidents Cup that the International Team have swept the Friday foursomes.

The dramatic turnaround sees the Internationals bounce back from losing Thursday’s fourballs session 3-2 and gives them a four-point advantage heading into the weekend, leaving them needing 8.5 points from the 20 left on offer to claim a first win since 1998.

How Internationals built shock lead at Medinah

Scheffler has now lost eight of his nine foursomes matches for Team USA in Presidents Cups or Ryder Cups, despite giving him and Burns the early lead after a sensational approach into the second set up a birdie.

Burns went out of bounds to lose the next hole before the Internationals responded to losing the fourth hole by winning the next two, with Conners and Taylor never relinquishing control to keep the pair one up with one to play.

Conners had to pitch out from thick rough before Taylor fired a stunning approach from the fairway to a foot, securing the par, with Burns lipping out with his 20-foot birdie try to tie the match.

“We just tried to be relentless out there,” Conners said. “Both hit a lot of quality shots and Nick [Taylor] made some key putts there towards the end to keep us in the position. His approach shot into the last here was unbelievable!”

Matsuyama partnered Ryo Hisatsune to victory on the opening day but formed a formidable partnership with Im, as the pair won four consecutive holes from the third to race into a 3up lead against Henley and Bridgeman.

The American won successive holes from the 10th but Matsuyama nailed a 20-foot birdie to win the 12th and Im won the 15th, before the Internationals closed out the point when Matsuyama rattled an unlikely par at the par-three 16th.

Hopes of a session sweep increased when Fox posted successive birdies from the 15th to flip his and Lee’s match, with Morikawa missing a five-foot putt to level at the 17th and allowing the Internationals to close out another point with a par at the last.

Thomas and Young never led during their match against Scott – playing in a record-breaking 56th Presidents Cup match – and Bezuidenhout, who wrapped up an impressive win with a 30-foot birdie on the 16th.

“There’s a lot of golf left,” Scott insisted. “Tomorrow is a big day. I think we had a similar situation two years ago in Canada [2024 Presidents Cup]. Hopefully we learned from that and we can back a great day up tomorrow.”

Kim and Kim also had control in the bottom match, posting six birdies in alternate shot, with Team USA’s pointless session confirmed when Schauffele missed from three feet to extend that match at the 15th.

Ogilvy savours ‘incredible’ day for Internationals

International Team captain Geoff Ogilvy:

“We loved how we played yesterday – the first match could have gone either way and it ended up 2-3 their way, but we just wanted to come win this session.

“They [Internationals] were all in a really good frame of mind, but you would never imagine doing five sets. We did it in Montreal [sweep], so maybe it’s a pattern now. We never mentioned that, but the boys played really well. It was an incredible day for us.”

Team USA captain Brandt Snedeker:

“Hats off to the International Team – they went out there and played great. They made a ton of putts. I feel like our guys hit a bunch of great putts and just couldn’t find the bottom of the hole.

“You’re going to have sessions like this in these things. I feel terrible for the guys because I know they grinded out there and gave me everything they had today, and it wasn’t meant to be. That being said, there’s still 20 points out there. There’s a lot of golf left to play.”

Who will win the Presidents Cup? Live coverage continues on Saturday from 1pm on Sky Sports+ and 4.30pm on Sky Sports Golf. Get Sky Sports or stream golf and more with no contract.

The top stories and transfer rumours from Saturday’s newspapers…

PREMIER LEAGUE

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has told Liverpool that accepting their £50m bid for Ismaila Sarr was ‘never going to happen’ – Daily Mirror

Bradley Barcola has been told he doesn’t justify his £123m price tag by former France and Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf – Daily Star

JJ Gabriel ‘will definitely leave United’ and will depart by next summer at the latest, according to a German newspaper report – Daily Mirror

Gabriel Martinelli’s representative has revealed his client turned down offers from the Premier League, Italy and Germany before finalising his £60m move from Arsenal to Saudi Pro League team Al-Hilal earlier this month – The Sun

Manchester United striker Joshua Zirkzee has earned a call-up to the Netherlands national team as a replacement for the injured Brian Brobbey – Daily Mirror

Former Newcastle winger Hatem Ben Arfa has been known for causing a racquet on the football pitch and he is now doing that literally in the world of padel and is now recognised for being one of the finest padel players on the other side of the Channel – The Sun

EUROPE

Real Madrid could make a major change to their transfer dealings to accommodate Jose Mourinho’s request for a new central midfielder – The Sun

INTERNATIONAL

Brazil football legend Roberto Carlos has revealed he lost 99 per cent of his £133m earnings from his playing career amid issues with a former agent and a family member – Daily Mail

SCOTLAND

Celtic’s Yang Hyun-Jun has suffered a hamstring injury on international duty with South Korea – The Scottish Sun

New Scotland boss Sebastien Pocognoli admits he’ll need to keep his emotions in check in Slovenia – The Scottish Sun