Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Bulls

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

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a commanding Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to prop 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.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

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

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme 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 electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin 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 given a helping hand 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 creator, stepping inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three tries in five minutes.

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 dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, host Bristol Bears 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)