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

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

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

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed 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 Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on 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 Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were on top in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three scores in five minutes.

George 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 final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

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