George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Pretoria Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints secured maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

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

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before 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 extra man to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, welcome Bristol Bears in their next outing 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)