Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton secured 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 Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game 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 decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

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

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were on top in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have one point from two matches, welcome 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)