George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Demolish Pretoria Bulls

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

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

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 unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, following a 35-27 away win at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have asked for a better start as they look to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Pollock broke before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put George Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from the opposition 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 deceive the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament returns 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 Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol in their next outing before an away trip 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)