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

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the break but a yellow card to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints took the lead when Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try 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 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 quick hands from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

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

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

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