Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

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

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to prop Alulutho 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 Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, 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 failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

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

Saints were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find 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, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

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

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol Bears in their next outing 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)