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

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their opening two European games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Northampton side cut loose in the second half.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the interval but a sin-binning to prop Alulutho Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they failed to register a point in the second half.

International Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

The manner of this win, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they look to improve on that in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts took the lead when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to race clear to the try line.

But an mistake from the winger let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in contact, allowing Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Northampton had their second as quick hands from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith sent George Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

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

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

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

Northampton seized the opportunity of having the extra man to secure the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the hosts registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

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

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

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

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