Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Pretoria Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it maximum 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 before the hour mark as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to forward Alulutho 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 superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to kick on 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 Fin Smith sent Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when looked at by the officials.

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

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, welcome Bristol in their next outing before an away trip 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)