George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in 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.

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

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

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

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

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

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, host Bristol Bears in their next outing before an away trip 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)