Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Pretoria Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton 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 ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance 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 failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

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

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

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

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

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