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

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton made it maximum points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

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

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

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

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, welcome Bristol Bears in their next outing before an away trip 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)