Kiwi prop Chris Budgen crossed for two tries as Northampton claimed a comfortable 33-8 victory in their friendly with The Cats at Franklin's Gardens.

The game marked the return from injury of the Cats' Bob Skinstad, Andre Pretorius and James Dalton and was also former Springbok skipper Skinstad's debut appearance for his new province.

The Cats dominated the early possession and went ahead with a try from Friedrich Lombard. Kennedy Tsimba added a penalty in the 21st minute but that was as good as it got for the Super-12 side.

Saints roared straight back as Oriol Ripol rounded off a good move to touch down and bring his side back into the game at 8-5 down at the interval.

It was the start of things to come as Budgen went over the the first of his two soon after the restart and added another after a rolling maul.

Mark Tucker pounced for Saints' third and Nick Beal finished off good work in the backs for his side's fifth.

Bruce Reihana added his fourth conversion to round off a good night's work for the Saints.

The Cats next game on their pre-Super 12 tour of England is against a Newcastle Falcons side on Friday.

Northampton Saints Select XV:
Beal (Whetstone 58mins); Sleightholme (Brown 69mins), Tucker, Reihana (A Hepher 73mins), Ripol; Brooks (Leslie 62mins), Vass (Howard 34mins (Vass 73mins)); Sturgess (Todd 51mins), Richmond (Miles 61mins), Budgen (Sturgess 68mins), Phillips (Lord 60mins), Hunter, Fox, Pountney (capt) (Soden 61mins), Soden (S Hepher 51mins).

The Cats:
Fourie; Willemse (Coetzee 71mins), Bobo (Jacobs 71mins), Muller, Lombard; Tsimba (Pretorius 58mins), Jordaan (January 58mins); P van Niekerk (van der Merwe 53mins), Shimange (Dalton 53mins), Nell (Barnard 40mins), Tromp, Stoltz (Skinstad 60mins), Smith (Strachan 40mins), Winter (capt), Breedt.

Scorers:
Saints Select XV - Tries: Ripol, Budgen (2), Tucker, Beal; Cons: Reihana (4).

The Cats - Try: Lombard; Pen: Tsimba.