Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Bulls

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

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to prop 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 Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints 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, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the line.

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

Shortly after, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering 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 tripping offense on Emmanuel 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 unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints head to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home 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 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)