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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured maximum points from their opening two European games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a better start as they look to go one better this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints 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 last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol Bears next before an away trip 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)