George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to go one better this season.

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 showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an error from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third score.

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 just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three scores in five minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, host Bristol Bears next 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)