Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

George Hendy scored a hat-trick as Northampton made it a perfect ten points from their first two European games with an eight-try thrashing of Pretoria.

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Henry Pollock secured the fourth try before the hour mark as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the latter period.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a yellow card to forward Tshakweni in the 53rd minute for a unnecessary trip proved very costly and they did not score a point in the second half.

International Smith added 10 points with the boot as Northampton went top of their pool on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux with the two teams on 10 points.

The nature of this win, coming after a 35-27 away win at Pau previously, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a better start as they aim to improve on that this season.

Pretoria's number ten Kade Wolhuter missed an early penalty before the hosts opened the scoring when Henry Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an mistake from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Stravino Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to score after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the base of a ruck and then Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it 14-5 at the half-time whistle.

Northampton were dominant in possession and territory and were being aided from the opposition fly-half Kade Wolhuter who failed to find touch with clearing penalties to bring the pressure back on the away side.

That proved decisive after 48 minutes when Fin Smith was again the architect, darting inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before delivering a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Alulutho Tshakweni was then shown a yellow card for a trip on Iyogun. Tshakweni was adamant he had been responding to a trip just prior by the Saints player but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled unintentional when looked at by the match officials.

Saints seized the opportunity of having the numerical advantage to clinch the bonus point through Pollock before Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three tries in five frantic minutes.

George 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 Northampton in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

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

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