George Hendy runs riot as Northampton subject dire Bristol to 94-33 humiliation

All kinds of scoring records were spectacularly broken by a rampant Northampton on a lovely clear evening in the East Midlands. Never before have the Saints scored more points in a top-flight fixture and never have Bristol endured such a grisly 80 minutes. To say the Bears finished a horribly distant second is to put it politely.

By the time the carnage finally concluded the home side had scored 14 tries with George Hendy bagging four of them and Archie McParland and Rory Hutchinson collecting two apiece. Saints scored no fewer than 61 points in the first half alone, assisted by a visiting defence who were chasing green, black and gold shadows from a very early stage.

Almost lost amid the crazy whirring of the scoreboard was the confirmation that Northampton’s playoff qualification is assured, with a home semi-final all but certain. Bristol’s prospects of making the top four, however, now look completely shot after a night that stripped away much of their dignity. They have a growing injury list but there can be no excuses for this kind of embarrassing blowout.

Admittedly they did rally slightly in the second half and finished with five tries of their own but, not helped by three yellow cards, the damage had already been done. With Henry Pollock and Tommy Freeman in prime touch and McParland adding further to his growing reputation as a classy playmaker, this was some riposte by Northampton to their bruising loss to neighbours Leicester at Welford Road last Saturday.

It was a much less happy occasion for Benhard Janse van Rensburg, the Bristol centre who is potentially in line to become available for England in July. Along with the rest of the visiting lineup he could do little to stop Saints repeatedly slicing through and supplying easy pickings for their quick men out wide. This was the Bears’ biggest pounding in the pro era, even beating the 81 points they conceded to Worcester in the Championship in 2011.

Callum Chick added to Bristol’s woe to score Northampton’s third try. Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

Pat Lam, the visiting director of rugby, made little attempt to sugar-coat the bitter pill. “It’s embarrassing and disappointing,” said Lam, whose side had smashed his former club 46-12 in the reverse fixture. “I want to apologise to all our fans … we’re obviously bitterly disappointed. That was probably the worst night I’ve had in rugby terms.”

Northampton, by contrast, would love to carry this clinical form into the playoffs as they chase a second Prem title in three seasons. They had three tries on the board within the first eight minutes, with a burrowing effort from Harry Thacker sandwiched between two slickly taken scores by Hendy, assisted by Pollock’s long pass, and then Hutchinson.

The home favourites were only just warming up. Freeman somehow kept the ball infield on the right touchline and the alert Callum Chick was quickest to react to score the home side’s third. The Bears badly needed some kind of response and found one via a quick tap by Harry Randall and a lightning finish in the right corner by Louis Rees-Zammit.

The respite was only fleeting. Some of Saints’ offloading and handling was superlative and, with Kalaveti Ravouvou in the sin-bin, Alex Coles and McParland turned the screw further. Already it was 33-14 and when Hendy then put the excellent George Furbank away for the hosts’ sixth try the game was still not half an hour old.

This kind of frenetic try-fest is not to everyone’s taste and it was certainly depressing viewing from Bristol’s perspective. That said Saints’ dexterity and ability to create space almost at will was outstanding, particularly when allied to their energetic work at the breakdown. With Hutchinson and Hendy both crossing the whitewash for a second time and Josh Kemeny galloping past a flat-footed defence from 25 metres out the hosts had a scarcely believable 61 points on the board by half-time.

The rest was largely anti-climactic after Pollock had contributed a slashing try barely a minute after the restart. Northampton withdrew several of their leading lights and the scoring rate slowed appreciably until the end when, with Matías Moroni off the field for trying to rough up Pollock, the hosts eased into the nineties through Sam Graham and then Hendy again, even eclipsing the 90 points they stuck on Gloucester two seasons ago.

“We were well and truly hammered at Tigers and you probably saw how much that hurt today,” said Phil Dowson, Saints’ director of rugby.