Northampton humiliate Bristol in record-breaking game
Northampton Saints scored 14 tries to humiliate Bristol Bears 94-33 at Franklin's Gardens and confirm their semi-final place in a record-breaking game of Prem Rugby. Winger George Hendy led the rout with four tries, bookending the game by crossing the whitewash in the third minute and in the last. In between, Saints scored at will as they racked up nine first-half tries for a 61-14 lead at the break, rendering their five more after half-time as something of a come down.
The defeat, and the manner of it, is a serious blow to Bristol's hopes of making the play-offs, leaving them four points behind fourth-placed Exeter who play Harlequins on Saturday. They did at least score five tries to take away a bonus point. The total of 127 points meant it was the highest scoring game in the history of English top-flight rugby union, beating the previous record of 118 in Richmond's 106-12 win over Bedford in 1999.
Prem leaders Northampton were back to their razor-sharp attacking best as they bounced back from their own dark day in a record defeat at rivals Leicester last weekend and now need six more points from their final two games to secure a home semi-final. Their night began with a break from Tom Litchfield and a pass from Henry Pollock to send Hendy up the left-wing to score. Rory Hutchinson and Callum Chick added two more tries but replies from Harry Thacker and Rees-Zammit saw the game nicely poised at 19-14.
But when Bristol winger Kalaveti Ravouvou was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on, Saints took full advantage to score three more tries as Alex Coles went over from close range, Tommy Freeman's break down the right wing sent Archie McParland over and a break from Hendy freed space for George Furbank to score. Hutchinson walked in a seventh try from an attacking line-out, Josh Kemeny broke through midfield to add an eighth, and with the final play of the first 40 minutes, an attack from their own half saw Hendy score again and Joe Batley sin-binned for a shoulder charge. The carnage kept coming after the break as two minutes into the second half, Freeman broke up the middle and passed for Pollock to go over.
Bristol did at least work Harry Randall into the right corner for their third try but they dropped the restart and McParland collected the loose ball to run in. Hutchinson's turnover led to Hendy's hat-trick try as he stepped in off the left wing and Bristol had conceded more points than ever before in a Prem fixture. They did respond and a succession of penalties led to a yellow-card for Ed Prowse and a try for Luka Ivanishvili that gave Bristol a bonus point.