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

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

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a yellow card to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the line.

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

Shortly after, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then 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 Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The 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)