George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Pretoria Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured maximum points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward 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 Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints went top of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton 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 made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

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 away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Saints' third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop 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 unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the extra man to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three tries in five minutes.

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 day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

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