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

George Hendy bagged a triple as the Saints made it maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval 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.

International Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

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

But an error from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

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

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three scores in five minutes.

Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, host Bristol next 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)