George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Pretoria Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton made it maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a yellow card to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put George Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three scores in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol Bears in their next outing before traveling to face Pau.

Line-ups

Northampton: Furbank; Sleightholme, Hutchinson, Dingwall, Hendy; F Smith, Mitchell; Fischetti, Wright, Davison, Coles, Van der Mescht, Kemeny, Pearson, Pollock

Replacements: R Smith, Iyogun, Kundiona, Munga, Prowse, Graham, James, Thame

Bulls: Williams; Petersen, Gans, Vorster, Jacobs; Wolhuter, Burger; Tshakweni, Van der Merwe, Smith, Wiese, Van Heerden, Coetzee, Ludwig, Louw

Replacements: Else, Sithole, Mchunu, Gumede, Carr, Papier, Johannes, Van Niekerk

Yellow card: Tshakweni (53)

Match Officials

Referee: Hollie Davidson (Sco)

Assistant referees: Rob McDowell (Sco) and Dave Sutherland (Sco)

TMO: Mike Adamson (Sco)