Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Pretoria Bulls

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

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

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

But an error from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, 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 fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith sent George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

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

The Pretoria 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)