George Hendy Hat-Trick as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Bulls
Investec Champions Cup Pool Four
Northampton Saints (14) 50
Tries: Sleightholme 2, Hendy 3, Pollock, Coles, Kemeny Cons: Smith 5
Pretoria Bulls (5) 5
Tries: Jacobs
The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.
Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the second half.
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 decisive and they did not score a point in the second half.
England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.
The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that this season.
Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the 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, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.
Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.
That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third.
Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the officials.
Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three tries in five frantic minutes.
George Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.
Rerun of Last Year's Final Awaits Saints
The leading pair in the pool meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.
The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from their opening two games, welcome 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)
