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George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Pretoria 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
George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.
Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the latter period.
The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a yellow card to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.
England fly-half Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.
The manner of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped 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 passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.
But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.
Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith sent George 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 bring the pressure back on the away side.
That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third.
Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the officials.
Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three tries in five frantic minutes.
Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an outstanding day for Northampton in the dying moments.
Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints
The top two teams in the group meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.
The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host 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)
Melissa Adams
Certified Scrum Master with over 10 years of experience in leading Agile transformations and coaching teams to success.
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