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

George Hendy bagged a triple as the Saints made it maximum points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints took the lead when Pollock broke before passing to 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 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 score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop 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 clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool meet in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints 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 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)