George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to go one better in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent 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 aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to deceive the onrushing defense before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity 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 minutes.

George Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single 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)