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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it maximum points from their first two European games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

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

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Saints 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 reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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)