George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Pretoria 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 hammering of Pretoria.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant 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 forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Saints were on top in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three scores in five minutes.

Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol 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)