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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

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

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the 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 hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put George Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

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

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Northampton substitute 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 Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

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

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, 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)