George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Pretoria Bulls

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

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

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try 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.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition 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 Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third.

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

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

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

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol in their next outing 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)