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

The young winger 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 Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls 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 architect, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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