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

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

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

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Alex 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 break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch 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 returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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