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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better this season.

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

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

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base 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 aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol 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)