Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance 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 did not score a point in the second half.

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 the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better this season.

Pretoria's number ten 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 Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

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 bring the pressure back on the visitors.

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

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

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one 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)