George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy 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.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better in this campaign.

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

But an error from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing 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 Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Saints were on top in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three tries in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

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