Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Bulls

George Hendy bagged a triple as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 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 failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one 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)