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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 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 final forty minutes.

International Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

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

Northampton were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

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

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

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three scores in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

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