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

The young winger bagged a triple 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 Pollock secured the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a yellow card to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly 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 points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Saints could not have asked for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter failed with an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino 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 as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple 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.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rematch of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one 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)