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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

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

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

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

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol next before traveling to 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)