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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock scored the fourth try before the hour mark as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

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

International Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided 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 Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three tries in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one 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)