Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

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

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning 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 Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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