George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger 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 George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were on top in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

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

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group will face off in a rematch of last year's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

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