Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the latter period.

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

International Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half 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 sprint away to the try line.

But an error from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

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

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

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

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident 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 Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol in their next outing before an away trip face 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)