Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after 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 aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half 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 error from the winger 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 electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

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

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence 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 tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

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

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, welcome Bristol Bears next 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)