Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Rout Bulls

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

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

The Bulls 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 unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

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

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear 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 kick on and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

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

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

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol in their next outing 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)