George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton secured maximum points from their opening two European games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly 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 their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an error from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

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

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

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

Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

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

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, welcome Bristol next before traveling to 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)