Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Pretoria Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock made a break 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 the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed 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 George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.

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

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

Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, welcome Bristol Bears 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)