George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it maximum points from their first 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 Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a yellow card to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

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

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an mistake 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 score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five 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 reinvite pressure onto the away side.

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

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three tries in five minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints 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 the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol next before traveling to 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)