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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured maximum points from their first two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the fourth 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 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

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

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed 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 Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were on top in possession and territory and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Northampton in the dying moments.

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 returns in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

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