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

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

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the line.

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

Shortly after, Saints had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

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

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol next 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)