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

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after 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 aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace 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 the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put George Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

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

George Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, host Bristol Bears 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)