George Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Northampton Hammer Bulls

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

Ollie Sleightholme crossed twice and Pollock scored the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side cut loose in the latter period.

The Bulls were within touching distance with the score 14-5 at the interval but a yellow card 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 Smith added 10 points from the tee as Saints moved to the summit of their pool on superior 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 last week, means last year's losing finalists Northampton could not have hoped for a more ideal beginning as they aim to improve on that this season.

Bulls fly-half Wolhuter failed with an early penalty before Saints took the lead when Pollock broke before passing to Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the line.

But an error from Sleightholme let the Bulls back in as the ball slipped from his grasp in the tackle, allowing Pretoria winger Jacobs to hack the ball forward and show electric speed of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith sent Hendy over to make it 14-5 at the break.

Northampton were dominant in both ball and field position and were being given a helping hand from the opposition fly-half Wolhuter who twice missed touch with clearing penalties 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 sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to collect his second try and Saints' third.

Pretoria forward Alulutho Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Emmanuel Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip just prior by Iyogun but the contact 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 Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team notched three scores in five frantic minutes.

George Hendy completed his hat-trick with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth try of an outstanding afternoon for Saints in the dying moments.

Rematch of Last Season's Final Awaits Saints

The top two teams in the pool will face off in a rerun of last year's final when the tournament returns in the new year as Northampton head to Bordeaux. Northampton then round off the pool stage with a home game against Scarlets on January 18th.

The Bulls, who have one point from two matches, welcome Bristol Bears 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)