George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Saints Rout Bulls

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

Sleightholme scored two tries and Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop 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 contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they look to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to race clear 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 kick on and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as quick hands from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith sent Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

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

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

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

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