George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Rout Pretoria Bulls
Investec Champions Cup Pool Four
Northampton Saints (14) 50
Tries: Sleightholme 2, Hendy 3, Pollock, Coles, Kemeny Cons: Smith 5
Pretoria Bulls (5) 5
Tries: Jacobs
George Hendy bagged a triple as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.
Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.
The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho 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 added 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior 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 last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to go one better in this campaign.
Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.
But an mistake from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.
Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over 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 Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.
That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.
Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.
Northampton seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three tries in five frantic minutes.
George Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.
Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints
The top two teams in the group meet in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.
The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol Bears next before traveling to 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)
