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: 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.
Sin bin: Obatoyinbo (14), Rakete-Stones (43)
Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe.
Leave a Reply