George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their opening two European games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points with the boot 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, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

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

But an mistake from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second try as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put George Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Northampton were dominant in possession and territory and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

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

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding day for Northampton in the final minute.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

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