George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Rout Pretoria Bulls

The young winger bagged a triple as the Saints made it 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 before the hour mark as a commanding Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a yellow card to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved decisive and they did not score a point in the final forty minutes.

International Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The nature of this victory, coming after a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

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

Shortly after, Saints had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put George Hendy over to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the away side.

That told 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 George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

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

George Hendy wrapped up his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in 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 top two teams in the pool meet in a rematch of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome 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)