'They can be good... They’ve signed some unbelievable players'

Despite Newcastle Red Bulls losing 59-26 at Franklin’s Gardens, Northampton head coach Phil Dowson was convinced they would still be a force to be reckoned with and would make the Prem more competitive this season.

Red Bulls have recruited ferociously since the end of last season and despite the loss of two players to yellow cards, they competed throughout and were rewarded with a four-try bonus point.

Christian Wade scored two of them 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 from Zack Henry and one from Brett Connon.

However Saints were always in charge of the match with Tommy Freeman and James Pater both scoring hat-tricks. There were also tries from George Hendy, Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme, taking Saints’ tally to nine, with Fin Smith adding five conversions and Anthony Belleau two.

Dowson said: “We want the Prem to be as competitive as it can and they showed tonight that they can be really good.

“They’ve signed some unbelievable players and moved the ball well as they want to play fast.

“I’m reasonably satisfied with our performance as I thought we were at it, despite not having a lot of time together.

“When we looked after the ball at the breakdown, I thought we looked good but there are a few things we could be better at.

“James Pater was excellent today. He kicked the winner against Saracens last year and showed he’s cold-blooded with an incredible skill-set.”

“He’s replaced Furbs (George Furbank) and it’s always difficult to choose who to keep as you are emotionally attached to players. James has replaced George in the same way as we allowed club captain Lewis Ludlam to go when we knew we had Henry Pollock coming through.”

Newcastle’s director of rugby Dan McFarland appreciated it was a tough opening fixture for his side.

He said: “They showed us complete respect by playing all their bangers but we kept at it and squeezed a bonus point at the end.

“Conceding three tries in the period of our first yellow card was crucial and the try just before half-time was also a killer but we had a lot of defensive sets which we can be proud of.

“We have a long journey ahead of us but we put in a lot of good stuff tonight, although they made us pay by pouncing on our errors as they are so good.”