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

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

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 decisive and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

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

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

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 clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, 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.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three scores in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and 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 Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol next before traveling to 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)