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

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

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

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition 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 Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one point from two matches, host Bristol in their next outing before an away trip face 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)