Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Pretoria Bulls

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

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour 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 interval but a yellow card to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

International Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an error from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when looked at by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent day for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, host Bristol in their next outing before traveling to 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)