George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints head to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol 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)