George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Bulls

George Hendy bagged a triple as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger 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 Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third score.

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

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, welcome Bristol next 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)