George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Rout Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it maximum points from their opening two European games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary 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 moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim 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 Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put George Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties 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 onrushing defense before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single 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)