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

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

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the fourth try before the hour mark as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The visitors 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 decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

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

Shortly after, Northampton had their second try as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

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

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

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase 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 an away trip 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)