George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

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

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That told after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior 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 try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

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