George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

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

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

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

International Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they look to go one better in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino 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 fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun 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 Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on 18 January.

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