George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Demolish Bulls

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

Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the interval but a sin-binning to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the final forty minutes.

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

The nature 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 asked for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to 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 contact, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

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

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That told after 48 minutes when Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before sending a sweet grubber kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

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

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup resumes in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux-Bègles. Northampton then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have one point from two matches, host Bristol Bears next before an away trip 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)