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

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it maximum points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

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

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a yellow card to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp 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 fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent 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 the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three scores in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

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

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)