George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Rout Bulls

George Hendy 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 the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on 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, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Saints were on top in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted grubber 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 insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol next before an away trip 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)