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

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton secured maximum points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Pau 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.

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

But an error from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided 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 Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni 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 capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

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