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

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

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

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

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints took the lead when Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try 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 hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent 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 given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned 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 bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

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