Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a yellow card to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

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

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent 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 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 scored as the hosts notched three scores in five minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, host Bristol 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)