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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to prop Alulutho 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 Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts took the lead when Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as quick hands 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 both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

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

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

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

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one point from two matches, welcome Bristol Bears next 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)