George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Pretoria Bulls

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

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from the winger 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 blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put George 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 Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel 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 accidental when looked at by the officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three scores in five 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 excellent afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol in their next outing before traveling to 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)