Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Pretoria Bulls

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

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the second half.

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

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 away win 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 Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the line.

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

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament 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 Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol in their next outing 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)