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

George Hendy bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning 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 from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders 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 year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts took the lead when Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an error from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward 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 base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three scores in five minutes.

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

Rematch 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 January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol Bears in their next outing 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)