George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Bulls

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

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

International Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, 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 quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

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

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, host 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)