Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Hammer 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 Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third.

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

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

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair 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 group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

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