Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured maximum points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

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

The nature of this victory, coming after 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.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as quick hands from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

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

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

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

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, host Bristol Bears next 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)