George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick 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.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors 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 needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the line.

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

Shortly after, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

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

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

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

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

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