Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their opening two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

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

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they look to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing 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 as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over 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 Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third.

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

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool meet in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol in their next outing 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)