Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try before the hour mark as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win 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 this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an error from the winger 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 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 to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third.

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

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

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

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, 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)