George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it 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 Henry Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

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

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent George Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the onrushing defense before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third score.

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

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

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