George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer 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 Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the latter period.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, welcome 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)