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

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an mistake from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

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

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when reviewed by the officials.

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

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The 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)