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.