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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it maximum points from their opening two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning 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.

International Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

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

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

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

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as quick hands from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put George Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half 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 architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The 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)