George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Bulls

George Hendy bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless 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 Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

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

Shortly after, Saints had their second try as fast passing from 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 on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

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