Hendy: We want special send off for top Saints
NORTHAMPTON flyer George Hendy has enjoyed a breakthrough year with the table toppers and while the likes of Saracens insist they won’t be distracted by their departures, he says club legends moving on has fuelled the fire for his side ahead of the play-offs.
Northampton bounced back from the disappointment of their heartbreaking 20-17 Champions Cup semi-final loss to Leinster with a ruthless 14-try demolition of Gloucester.
Courtney Lawes and Alex Waller departed the Franklin’s Gardens turf to a standing ovation in an emotional tribute to the pair that have given a combined 32 years of service to their boyhood club.
And 21-year-old 6ft 3ins full-back Hendy says sending off the likes of captain Lewis Ludlam, Lawes and Waller with a first Premiership triumph in ten years is what they deserve.
He told The Rugby Paper: “This season has been my first playing regular Premiership rugby, so I don’t know them half as well as a lot of the other lads in the team and even some of the coaches who played with them. Seeing how much they’ve done for the club and how they’ve performed in the last 15 years is pretty special and makes us emotionally up for games as well. If we know the likes of Ludlam, Waller and Lawes are leaving at the end of the season, we know we want to finish with the big one.
“I don’t think we’ve been distracted once by it this season even when it was announced in the media, we just turned that into motivation to make it a special year for them.”
Northampton’s 90-0 whitewash of Gloucester last week was just four points short of the all-time Premiership winning margin – Richmond beating Bedford 106-12 in 1999.
The fact it came just seven days after Northampton’s emotional rollercoaster with Leinster in front of 82,300 at Croke Park shows the mettle of Hendy’s side.
Northampton failed to fire a shot in the first half which ultimately cost them in Dublin, but Hendy was delighted that his side could put that defeat behind them.
He added: “We were frustrated at half-time because we weren’t getting hammered but it felt like we hadn’t fired a shot yet. They had thrown everything at us and they only had 12 points to show for it, so it was about working out how we could get our game plan onto the pitch and that was our focus before the Gloucester game.
“We stripped it back to the basics and had a look at how we can get our game plan on the pitch for 80 minutes and not just 20 or 30, or even a half which has happened a few times this season, but that was an 80-minute performance we can be proud of.
“The biggest lesson we took out of it (the Leinster game) is that we’ve still got a lot of confidence in our game plan. We were only performing how we wanted to perform in the last 20 minutes and ended up losing by three points against a strong team. We took a load of confidence out of that. Yes, it hurts but we now know we’ve got a lot of confidence going forward into the semi-finals.”
After scoring a try on his debut in 2021 against London Irish, Hendy proved a useful bit-part player in the past two seasons but has been a key man in Phil Dowson’s arsenal this term with his rangy running.
Saints have a number of quality back three players but Hendy’s become first choice, coming into this weekend with eight tries from 19 outings in all competitions and he could be a difference maker in their title pursuit.
He added: “A couple of lads were injured at the start of the season so I got my shot and thankfully the coaches have kept backing me to show my personality on the pitch. I’ve had some good memories this season and hopefully we can finish with an even better one.”