Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy bagged a triple as Northampton made it maximum points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

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 Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 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 Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to go one better this season.

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

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

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

Saints were on top in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three scores in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Saints head to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, welcome 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)