George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy bagged a triple as the Saints secured maximum points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured 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 fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning 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 added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding 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 was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put 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 given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

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

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

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

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

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