George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Rout Bulls

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

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the fourth try before the hour mark as a commanding Saints team cut loose in the latter period.

The Bulls 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 unnecessary trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

England fly-half Smith contributed 10 points from the tee as Northampton went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions 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 previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have asked for a better start as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Pollock made a break before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme 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, Northampton had their second as quick hands from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put 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 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 Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to deceive the advancing defence before delivering a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. The prop was adamant he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when reviewed by the officials.

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

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

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The top two teams in the group meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Saints head to Bordeaux-Bègles. The Saints then round off the group phase with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Pretoria Bulls, who have a single point from two matches, welcome Bristol 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)