George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer 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.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward 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 base of a ruck and then Smith put Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Saints 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 bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin 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 Saints' third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

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

Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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