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

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

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team 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 needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

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

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

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

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

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

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

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