Hendy Scores Three as Eight-Try Saints Hammer Bulls

The young winger scored a hat-trick as the Saints secured maximum points from their first two European games with an eight-try thrashing of the Bulls.

Ollie Sleightholme scored two tries and Henry Pollock secured the bonus point try inside an hour as a dominant Northampton side ran riot in the second half.

The visitors were still in the game with the score 14-5 at the break but a sin-binning to forward Alulutho 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 Smith contributed 10 points with the boot as Northampton moved to the summit of Pool Four on points difference from defending champions Bordeaux-Bègles with both sides on 10 points.

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

Pretoria's number ten Wolhuter missed an early penalty before Saints opened the scoring when Henry Pollock made a break before passing to Ollie Sleightholme who demonstrated his speed to sprint away to the try line.

But an error from Sleightholme allowed the Bulls back into the game as the ball was knocked on in contact, allowing Bulls wing Jacobs to kick on and show blistering pace of his own to reply after 22 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Saints had their second try as fast passing from Mitchell at the ruck base and then Fin Smith put Hendy over in the corner to make it fourteen to five at the break.

Saints were on top in both ball and field position and were being aided from Bulls fly-half 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 creator, stepping inside to wrong-foot the onrushing defense before sending a perfectly weighted grubber kick over the line for George Hendy to grab his second try and Saints' third score.

Bulls prop Tshakweni was then sin-binned for a tripping offense on Iyogun. Tshakweni was insistent he had been responding to a trip momentarily before by Iyogun but the contact from the Saints replacement prop was ruled accidental when looked at by the officials.

Northampton capitalized of having the extra man to secure the bonus point through Pollock before Alex Coles and Ollie Sleightholme crossed as the home team registered three scores in five frantic minutes.

Hendy wrapped up his triple with 12 minutes remaining and Kemeny strolled in for the eighth and final try of an excellent day for Saints in the dying moments.

Rerun of Last Season's Final Next for Saints

The leading pair in the pool meet in a rerun of the previous season's final when the Investec Champions Cup returns in the new year as Saints travel to Bordeaux. The Saints then conclude the group phase with a fixture at home against the Scarlets on 18 January.

The Bulls, who have a single point from their opening two games, host Bristol Bears 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)