George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with 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 race clear to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace 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 George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

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

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when 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 George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three scores in five frantic minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol Bears next 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)