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 first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to forward 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 from the tee as Northampton went top of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

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

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find 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, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third.

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

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three tries in five minutes.

Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, 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)