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

George Hendy bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

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

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away 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 Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the break.

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

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a sweet 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 reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when reviewed by the officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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