Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Pretoria 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 thrashing of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team cut loose 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 Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

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

The nature of this victory, following 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 improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the line.

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

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put George Hendy over to make it fourteen to five 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 Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant 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 officials.

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

George 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 Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, 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)