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

The young winger 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 hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams 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 Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

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

Northampton were dominant 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 proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when reviewed by the officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three scores in five minutes.

Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, welcome Bristol Bears 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)