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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it maximum points from their first 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 ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

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

Northampton were dominant in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

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

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, host Bristol Bears 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)