George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Pretoria Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it maximum points from their opening two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the latter period.

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

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

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

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

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 away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try 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 responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

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

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, host Bristol in their next outing before an away trip 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)