Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 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.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol Bears in their next outing before an away trip 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)