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

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock scored the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring 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 the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

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

Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair 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. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, host Bristol next 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)