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

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

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Ollie 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 Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

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

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

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

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Saints 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 Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, welcome Bristol in their next outing 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)