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

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton secured maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

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

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward 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.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to 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 slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third score.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol in their next outing 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)