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

The young winger 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.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try before the hour mark as a commanding Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to go one better this season.

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

But an error from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, host Bristol Bears 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)