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

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

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward 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 Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

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

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an error from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing 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 as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner 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 twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, host Bristol Bears in their next outing 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)