Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints made it maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval 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.

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

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

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

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

Shortly after, Saints had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided 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 Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season'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 returns in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

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