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

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

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

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to forward 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 contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of Pool Four 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 last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

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

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux. Northampton 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, host Bristol in their next outing 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)