George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy 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 Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

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

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put George 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 clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

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