Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Pretoria Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

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

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp 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, 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 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered 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 try of an excellent day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol Bears next before an away trip 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)