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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured a perfect ten 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 commanding Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an error from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

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

Saints were on top in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks 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 delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off 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 in their next outing 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)