Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Pretoria Bulls

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

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock scored the fourth 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 interval but a yellow card to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

International Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from holders 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 year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put George Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Northampton 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 bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot 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 Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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