Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Pretoria Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

International Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

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

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

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

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as quick hands from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

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

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the extra man to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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