George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Rout Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Smith contributed 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 Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they look to go one better this season.

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

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in 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.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three tries in five minutes.

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

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, welcome Bristol Bears in their next outing before an away trip 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)