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

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

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a yellow card to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the line.

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

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

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third score.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three scores in five frantic minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, welcome 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)