Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Pretoria Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as the Saints made it maximum points from their opening two European games with an eight-try hammering of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock scored the bonus point try before the hour mark as a dominant Saints team cut loose in the second half.

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

International Fin Smith added 10 points from the tee as Northampton moved to the summit of their pool on 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 year's losing finalists Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they look to go one better in this campaign.

Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Pollock made a break before feeding 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 was knocked on in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show electric speed of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 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 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 creator, 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 Northampton's third.

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

Saints seized the opportunity of having the extra man to clinch the bonus point through Henry Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme scored as the home team notched three scores in five minutes.

Hendy completed his hat-trick with twelve minutes left on the clock and Kemeny walked over for the eighth and final try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament resumes in January as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the pool stage with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

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