Hat-trick hero George Hendy revealed a half-time ‘rev up’ helped Northampton Saints turn a slender interval lead against Vodacom Bulls into an emphatic 50-5 success.
Ollie Sleightholme’s early score and Hendy’s first of three, coupled with two Fin Smith conversions, were all the men Black, Green and Gold had to show for their efforts during a clunky first half in Round 2 of the Investec Champions Cup.
Their South African visitors had scored a breakaway effort against the run of play in the game’s opening quarter but it was one-way traffic after the sides swapped ends, with Saints running in six unanswered tries to record a 14th victory in their last 18 European outings.
“We sat there at half-time and we were quite critical of ourselves,” said Hendy. “We had a bit of a rev up to come out in the second half firing and start doing what we do best. I am glad we could go and deliver.
“We put that [first-half performance] down to our alertness on the pitch. How we were reactive, not proactive, in a lot of things. We know when we are being proactive, that is when we do our best stuff. We fixed that in the second half.
“We are trying to be the quickest team in the PREM and then especially now when we are playing in Europe. Coming up against big, physical teams, you want to ramp it up even more. We said at half-time we want to drive the tempo and we did that very well.”
Hendy struck again in the 49th and 69th minutes to complete his first treble for the Club, and take his Saints try tally to an impressive 28 from just 57 appearances.
Those scores were mixed in with a second for fellow winger Sleightholme and tries from Henry Pollock, Alex Coles and Josh Kemeny as Saints put themselves at the top Pool 4 after two rounds of action by collecting maximum match points.
“You’ve got to love it when you score a hat-trick,” added the 23-year-old. “There are some big boys in that Bulls team. Sometimes it was like running into a brick wall. But once you start to find those weak shoulders and those one-on-ones, that is where we really come alive as a team.
“We always back ourselves to go deeper into the game than anybody else and have more in the tank than anybody else, we pride ourselves on that and it is good fun we start loosening up.
“I absolutely loved it. Getting onto the end of three of them makes it even better, but even if I didn’t, it was still good fun out there.”
Gallagher PREM rugby returns on Saturday (20 December) when Sale Sharks are the visitors to cinch Stadium – very limited tickets remain available by clicking HERE – and Hendy is hoping to carry recent momentum on into Saints’ final home game of the calendar year.
“We will be looking to take this Champions Cup form into these next few PREM games,” he said. “The group feels tighter than ever, we have got a really good buzz about us, we are looking forward to ripping in against Sale.”