Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Rout Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their first two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed 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 score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni 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 officials.

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

Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, host Bristol Bears 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)