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

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

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

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval 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.

International Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second try as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Saints were on top 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 bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three scores in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

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