George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Pretoria Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton made it maximum points from their first two European games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a yellow card to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

International Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, 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.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

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

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, host Bristol Bears next 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)