George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors 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 needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they look to go one better in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the line.

But an error from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive 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 grab his second try and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

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

George Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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