Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Pretoria Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton secured maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

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

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better in this campaign.

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

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

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third score.

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

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol in their next outing 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)