George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

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

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the fourth try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score fourteen-five at the break but a sin-binning to prop Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a needless trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Fin Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on superior points difference from holders Bordeaux-Bègles with the two teams on 10 points.

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

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early shot at goal before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who showed his pace 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 Bulls wing Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Shortly after, Northampton had their second as fast passing from Alex Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with penalty kicks to reinvite pressure onto the visitors.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the creator, darting inside to wrong-foot the advancing defence before sending a sweet left-footed kick over the line for Hendy to collect his second and Northampton's third score.

Pretoria forward Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the incident from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the numerical advantage to clinch the try bonus point through Henry Pollock before Coles and Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three tries in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy completed his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The leading pair in the group meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the tournament resumes in January as Saints head to Bordeaux. The Saints then round off the group phase with a fixture at home against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, welcome Bristol next before an away trip 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)