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

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

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the break but a yellow card 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.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme 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 score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the break.

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

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off 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 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)