George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

George Hendy bagged a triple as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme 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 electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive 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 Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

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

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch 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 January as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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