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

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams 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 Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

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

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive 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 collect his second try and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an outstanding afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, host Bristol 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)