George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Rout 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 Pretoria.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

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

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three tries in five minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

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

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, host Bristol next 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)