Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

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

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth 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 fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear 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 Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second try as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

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 penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent 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 match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three scores in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have one point from two matches, welcome Bristol Bears 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)