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

The young winger bagged a triple 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.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

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

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

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

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

Northampton were dominant in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties 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 advancing defence before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

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