Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

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

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they look to go one better in this campaign.

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

But an mistake from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

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

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool meet in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, welcome Bristol Bears 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)