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

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Stravino 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 ruck base and then Smith sent George Hendy over to make it fourteen to five 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 told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, host 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)