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

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their opening two European games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

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

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

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

Shortly after, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three scores in five frantic minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single 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)