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

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an error from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

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

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player 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 secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

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