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

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock scored the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the latter period.

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

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after 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 improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an error from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game 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, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third.

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

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

Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host 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)