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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it maximum points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break 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 second half.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

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

George Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, welcome Bristol Bears in their next outing before an away trip face 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)