George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Rout 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.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles 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 Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Saints were on top 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 reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot 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 Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the try bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three scores in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome 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)