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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured maximum points from their opening two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Pollock broke before feeding Ollie 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 the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

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

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol next before an away trip 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)