George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a yellow card to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have asked for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie 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 slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino 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 Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, stepping inside to deceive the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three tries in five minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an outstanding day for Saints 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 the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol Bears in their next outing before traveling to 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)