Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Pretoria Bulls

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

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an mistake from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, 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.

Northampton were on top 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 reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the officials.

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

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

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