George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Bulls

George Hendy bagged a triple as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team 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 prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

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

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before passing to 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 Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to deceive the onrushing defense before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third score.

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

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

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

Rematch of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol Bears in their next outing before traveling to 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)