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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it maximum points from their opening two European games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The visitors 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 needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring 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 contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put 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 failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

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