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

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

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

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a yellow card to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

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

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

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

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, host Bristol Bears in their next outing before traveling to 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)