Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless 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 moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they aim to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme 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 blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

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

Saints were dominant 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 visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping 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 Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol Bears 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)