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

George Hendy bagged a triple as Northampton made it maximum points from their opening two European games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides 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 look to improve on that in this campaign.

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

But an mistake from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

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

Northampton were dominant in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three tries in five minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for 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 the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol in their next outing before traveling to 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)