George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Pretoria Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team 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 forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith added 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 victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau 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 in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Northampton were on top in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

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

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off 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, host Bristol Bears 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)