George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints made it 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 Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

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

International Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

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

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third.

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 just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when looked at by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding day for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, host Bristol Bears in their next outing 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)