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

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their opening two European games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

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

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding 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 kick on 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 ruck base and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on 18 January.

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