George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

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

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward 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 Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding 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 slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace 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 to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third score.

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

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

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool meet in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one point from two matches, welcome 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)