George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Bulls

George Hendy bagged a triple as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the fourth 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 Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith sent George 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 given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a sweet left-footed 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 tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year'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 returns in January as Saints head to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, 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)