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 European games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

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

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, 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 Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

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

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were on top in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three tries in five minutes.

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

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, welcome Bristol in their next outing before traveling to 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)