George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try before the hour mark as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles 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 season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed 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 hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on 18 January.

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