Scotland captain Budge Pountney grabbed an injury-time try as Northampton took the direct route to a 30-9 Heineken Cup victory over Glasgow at a rain-drenched Franklin's Gardens on Sunday.

Pountney returned to haunt his international team-mates, rounding off a comfortable second-half stroll with the fourth Saints score as they bounced back from a sorry opening-day defeat at Cardiff.

It ended a miserable afternoon for Glasgow, who started brightly but were eventually taken apart by a Northampton pack which established clear superiority after the interval and thoroughly deserved their win.

A quick glance at the team sheets made the game look something like a Scotland trial.

Northampton had no fewer than five Scottish internationals in their starting line-up - and no doubt former Saints coach Ian McGeechan will have been intrigued by the outcome, having taken up the challenge of leading the Scots for a second time when he quit Franklin's Gardens two years ago.

Since then, Northampton have been crowned European champions - although their 2000 triumph over Munster was immediately followed by a swift exit from last season's competition, a fate likely to repeated if they had failed to record an opening home win this time round.

In contrast, Glasgow's bid to become the first Scottish side to reach the quarter-finals looks at an end unless they can quickly reproduce the form which has taken them into the last eight of the Celtic League.

The visitors had started brightly, fly-half Tommy Hayes putting them in front with a second-minute penalty, and they continued to hold the initiative for most of the opening period.

Both sides' attempts at running rugby were not helped by Italian referee Marco Salera whose whistle was almost in constant use, often for the most spurious of offences.

Hayes failed with a second penalty chance, before eventually extending Glasgow's lead with a smartly taken 35 metre drop-goal.

Matt Dawson replied with a penalty for the home side, for whom Ben Cohen and Mark Tucker had gone close.

Cohen's best work was in defence, where he clung on to Jon Stuart and hauled him down after Glenn Metcalfe had broken over halfway.

Northampton lost Ali Hepher midway through the opening period, and the introduction of James Brooks at fly-half gave Saints a fresher look - although the Glasgow defence had taken on the look of a brick wall, even without the contribution of Salera whose string of bizarre decisions largely seemed to favour the visitors.

The Italian's confusion continued after the interval. But this time Glasgow were the chief transgressors, handing Northampton a territorial advantage they should have used to seal the game within five minutes of the restart.

Brooks was on hand to finish off after Dawson and Cohen had both failed to burrow their way over following a 30 metre forward drive.

But as conditions worsened, the youngster took the wrong option when Metcalfe slipped on the greasy surface attempting to tidy up Dawson's clever chip-kick and he knocked on as he tried to pick up a ball which was barely five metres from the visitors' line with not a defending player in sight.

Dawson's failed penalty attempt increased the edginess among the home support. But, with dominance established in the pack there was little to fear.

Cohen darted left after the Saints forwards had again gone close, and although Tucker juggled the winger's pass he eventually crashed over. Dawson failed to convert but exchanged penalties with Hayes to maintain Northampton's advantage.

Glasgow had already accepted their fate by the time Luca Martin strode over in the corner after the visitors had again been dragged under their posts for defensive duty.

Pountney's injury-time score merely rubbed salt into Scottish wounds.