George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try 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 reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second try as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

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 George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense 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 reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three scores in five frantic minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host 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)