George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as Northampton secured a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a yellow card to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Fin Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they aim to go one better this season.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith sent George Hendy over in the corner 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 Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been reacting to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when reviewed by the match officials.

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

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton head to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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