Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Pretoria Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints secured a perfect ten points from their opening two European games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

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

The visitors were still in the game with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

England fly-half Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau last week, means last season's runners-up Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they aim to go one better this season.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the line.

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

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties 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 sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to grab his second try and Northampton's third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card 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 contact 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 Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme scored as the hosts registered three scores in five minutes.

George Hendy completed his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for 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 the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on January 18th.

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