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

George Hendy bagged a triple as the Saints made it a perfect ten points from their opening two European games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a commanding Saints team ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were within touching distance with the score 14-5 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.

England fly-half Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Saints went top of their pool on superior points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

The manner of this victory, following a 35-27 victory on the road at Section Paloise last week, means last season's runners-up Saints could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to go one better in this campaign.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before feeding Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace to sprint away to the line.

But an error from the winger allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, 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 Mitchell at the ruck base and then Smith put Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

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 proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, stepping inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a perfectly weighted left-footed kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second and Northampton's third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. The prop was insistent he had been reacting to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the incident from the Northampton substitute was ruled unintentional when looked at by the officials.

Saints capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the hosts notched three tries in five minutes.

George Hendy wrapped up his triple with twelve minutes left on the clock and Josh Kemeny walked over for the eighth try of an excellent afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Year's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament resumes in the new year as Northampton travel to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the group phase with a home game against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The 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)