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

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

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot 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 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

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

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

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the onrushing defense before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

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

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

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

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