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

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton made it maximum points from their opening two Investec Champions Cup games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho 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 contributed 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton 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 penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the hosts notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the group phase 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 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)