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

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

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

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to prop 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 Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to go one better this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward 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 Fin Smith put George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant 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 reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence 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. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

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

George Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

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