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

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

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

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

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

The nature of this victory, 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 go one better this season.

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

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

Shortly after, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Northampton were dominant in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux. 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 two matches, welcome 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)