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

George Hendy bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

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

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward 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 contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to 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 slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.

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

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three scores in five frantic minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick 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 dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints 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 their opening two games, welcome Bristol Bears 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)