Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Pretoria Bulls

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

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance 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 decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade 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 Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, host Bristol next 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)