George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their opening two European games with an eight-try hammering of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved decisive 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 Pool Four on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the break.

Saints 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 bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before delivering a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the match officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Sleightholme scored as the home team registered three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the final minute.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rematch of last year's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol Bears 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)