Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Pretoria Bulls

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

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the latter period.

The visitors 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 unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

International Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding 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 Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Saints were dominant in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

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

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 final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one 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)