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

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their opening two European games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The visitors 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 failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

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

But an error from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith sent Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

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

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding day for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, 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)