Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

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

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, 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.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an error from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Saints were on top in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three scores in five minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single 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)