George North celebrates a monumental performance © Getty Images

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In the Aviva Premiership it was a weekend which saw the champions put down a title marker and the newly promoted side struggle. The Guinness PRO12 was also not short of drama while the Rugby Championship was marred by some poor refereeing. We look back at the weekend's rugby in the first Monday Maul of the season.

Saints go marching on

Five minutes into Saracens' match against Wasps, a journalist turned around in the press box at Twickenham and joked "I've just put £3,000 on Northampton to win the Premiership". While the bet will never materialise, the sentiment was there. The Saints were scary on Friday night, and in further bad news for the rest of the Premiership, George North was running at half power last season - one game into this campaign and he has a hat-trick.

While North was the deserved recipient of the Man-of-the-Match award, it could have gone to Samu Manoa for his work around the fringes of the breakdown and the same went for Dylan Hartley. In the centres Luther Burrell made 93 metres and scored two tries while George Pisi was also sublime. When Ben Foden is struggling to get into their first team, it shows the ability the Saints have to offer. If they can keep this side injury-free and maintain this intensity, no team in the league can stop them.

The season-long fly-half debate

When a Rugby World Cup is a year away, there will be a constant weekend-on-weekend dialogue over who is leading the race in the various positions. For England, the focus in the first round of the Premiership was on the fly-halves. While Danny Cipriani, Freddie Burns and Stephen Myler travelling to New Zealand, George Ford had the summer off to rest his shoulder following surgery.

The early signs are that it was a masterstroke. Ford was faultless against Sale as he kicked all of his efforts from the tee and was the catalyst for both of Bath's tries. First, his cross-kick saw Anthony Watson go over and then his little dummy and shimmy put Semesa Rokoduguni over.

Myler played some wonderful rugby on Friday evening, Cipriani played well and Burns took to the Welford Road cauldron like a duck to water but after one round it is advantage Ford. And all that without mentioning the heroic Andy Goode.

Barbieri's unique skills

New signings sometimes have to wait a while to make their presence felt in the league. For Robert Barbieri, his impact has been immediate. For Leicester's fourth try against Newcastle, Barbieri brought a new piece of genius to the league as he bunny-hopped the ball towards the try line for David Mele to dot it down. You can see it from 1:17 below.

When is a charge-down, not a charge-down?

You could have cried for Argentina when Leonardo Senatore's effort was wrongly chalked off by Pascal Gauzere. For all the world, Senatore attempt should have stood. When Ma'a Nonu kicked clear, Senatore charged the ball down and cantered in to score yet Gauzere deemed it a knock-on. It was an abomination of a decision to rule it out.

George Clancy also found himself in hot water with the press for his refereeing of Australia's game against South Africa with Greg Growden saying of his performance: "The Wallabies can also no longer carry on about being a luckless team, as they received the benefit of a string of dreadful decisions from referee George Clancy, who should have his whistle confiscated after such a diabolical performance. The Springboks have every right to cry foul as they were victims of numerous Clancy blunders."

"It was just banter"

To borrow Richard Keys' words, Newcastle Falcons found themselves in hot water with some of their Twitter followers after their tongue-in-cheek commentary of their game at Welford Road.

Apologies if some didn't get the banter today. Best team won no doubt but some crucial moments that can't go unsaid. No offence meant!

— Newcastle Falcons (@FalconsRugby) September 6, 2014

That apology came following Tweets such as this...

With just over 10 minutes to go it may be a bit early for Man of the Match but referee Luke Pearce has not put a foot wrong for Tigers..

— Newcastle Falcons (@FalconsRugby) September 6, 2014

The masters and the apprentices

It was a cruel introduction for London Welsh to Premiership life. There is always an eager anticipation concerning new teams and just how they will do. On the face of it, they have a competitive squad and were playing an Exeter side featuring a host of youngsters. But the Chiefs were at another level. The wonderful Sam Hill bossed the midfield while experienced forwards Ryan Caldwell and Thomas Waldrom dictated the tempo in the pack.

For Welsh, things, you hope, can only get better. Their attendance was pitiful and the performance was someway short of what you expect from a Premiership team. They have some good players in their ranks and a great skipper but they need to find their feet and fast. There is no better inspiration for this than Exeter who were promoted back in 2009 and have become Premiership mainstays ever since. Their new recruits numbered less than double figures and they finished eighth in their first campaign.

PRO12 off with a bang on Sky

As the PRO12 took its first tentative steps into what has been billed as a new era following their sponsorship deal with Guinness and the broadcasting contract with Sky Sports, both stakeholders must have been rubbing their hands with glee at the opening weekend. The Scarlets' match against Ulster, Sky's first game of the season, was a belting 32-32 draw while Munster's shock loss to Edinburgh and Glasgow's late triumph over Leinster also warrant a mention.