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

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints made it maximum points from their first two European games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a yellow card 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.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee 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 win, following a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the line.

But an error from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third.

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

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the try bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, host Bristol 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)