Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try before the hour mark as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

International Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

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

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

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

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, host Bristol in their next outing before an away trip 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)