Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Pretoria Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints made it maximum points from their opening two European games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

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

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

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