Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it maximum points from their first two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 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 second half.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try line.

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

Shortly after, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position 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 Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth 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 pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host 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)