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

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints made it maximum points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

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

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

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third.

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

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits 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 Northampton head to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

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