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

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger 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 as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on 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 left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three scores in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, host Bristol Bears in their next outing before traveling to 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)