Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Rout Pretoria Bulls

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

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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