Following Northampton Saints’ 50-5 win over the Bulls in their Investec Champions Cup clash at cinch Stadium @Franklin’s Gardens on Sunday, Planet Rugby picks out five takeaways from the thrilling action.
The top line
The home side came flying out of the blocks from the kick off and were rewarded with a well-taken try from Ollie Sleightholme in the ninth minute, but the visitors were competitive during the early stages and were rewarded when Stravino Jacobs went over the whitewash in the 23rd minute.
However, Northampton always held the upper hand in this encounter, and that dominance was rewarded 10 minutes later when George Hendy crossed for his first try, which meant the hosts held a 14-5 lead at half-time as Fin Smith succeeded with both conversions of his side’s tries.
It was one-way traffic after the interval as the Saints took control of proceedings and were rewarded soon after the restart when Hendy scored his second five-pointer in the 49th minute.
Shortly afterwards, poor discipline from Alulutho Tshakweni resulted in him being yellow-carded and with a numerical advantage, Saints were rewarded with further five-pointers from the irrepressible Henry Pollock, Alex Coles and Sleightholme, which meant they held a 40-5 lead by the 62nd minute.
Although the Bulls were soon back to their full complement of players, Northampton continued to dominate, and Hendy was rewarded with his hat-trick in the 68th minute before Josh Kemeny brought up a half-century of points for the hosts in the game’s dying moments.
Henry Pollock shows his class
The young England international made his return to Northampton’s run-on side and showed why he is so highly rated as he came to the fore with an outstanding all-round performance.
From the outset, the 20-year-old was in the thick of the action as he took the fight to his opponents with several excellent carries and in the ninth minute, he provided an assist to Sleightholme, who crossed for the opening try.
Pollock continued to ask questions of the Bulls’ defence with superb ball carrying as the match progressed, and in the 57th minute his efforts were rewarded when he powered his way over the try-line from close quarters.
That score secured Saints’ bonus point and gave them a 28-5 lead, but Pollock was far from done as he continued to test the visitors’ defence with several strong carries inside their half.
At the completion of match, the number eight finished with the second most carries (11), second most line breaks (2) and joint most turnovers won (2) to complete a fine individual showing.
A debut to forget for Kade Wolhuter
Although he is just 24 years old, Bulls fly-half Kade Wolhuter is an experienced playmaker who has already had stints at the Stormers and Lions before making the move to the Pretoria-based outfit.
Wolhuter was making his debut for the Bulls, but it’s an occasion which he will want to forget in a hurry as there were few positives from his side to report on in this fixture.
Although forward dominance and receiving good front-foot ball has a lot to do with the performance of a fly-half, Wolhuter simply wasn’t up to scratch on the day as he made a plethora of unforced errors.
On three occasions, he failed to find touch and one of those efforts came early in the second half when the Bulls were awarded a penalty. Although they were behind on the scoreboard, Northampton did not have a big lead, and the visitors were hoping to narrow the gap by launching an attack from the resulting lineout.
It wasn’t to be but apart from his poor kicking out of hand, Wolhuter also battled to unleash his outside backs and in the 67th minute his nightmare came to an end when he limped off with a leg injury, with Keagan Johannes coming on to replace him.
Bulls prop’s ill discipline proves costly
The men from Pretoria came into this encounter as overwhelming underdogs, and although they opted to rest most of their first-choice players, they proved to be competitive early on and were still in the game when the teams changed sides at half-time with Saints holding a 14-5 lead.
However, things went pear-shaped after the interval, and it was largely due to the visitors’ poor discipline, especially on defence, where they conceded several penalties.
In the 50th minute, Hendy crossed for his second try before the Bulls were reduced to 14 men two minutes later after Tshakweni’s moment of madness when he kicked out at Emmanuel Iyogun.
Referee Hollie Davidson looked at television replays of the incident on the stadium’s big screen and had no hesitation in issuing a yellow card to the Bulls loosehead prop, who then remonstrated with the match official before leaving the field.
Saints forwards catch the eye
There were several other players in Northampton’s side who caught the eye with fine individual performances, and although fly-half Smith was named the official player of the match after an outstanding all-round effort, and left wing Hendy crossed for a deserved hat-trick of tries, Saints’ forwards deserve plenty of praise as they laid the groundwork for this win.
The likes of props Danilo Fischetti and Trevor Davidson deserve plenty of praise as they gave as good as they got in the scrums against their counterparts, who usually dominate that aspect of play.
Meanwhile, the likes of Pollock, Kemeny, Tom Pearson and Craig Wright impressed with their ball carrying ability, which tested the Bulls’ defence throughout, while Coles was a valuable source of possession in the lineouts.
However, JJ van der Mescht deserves a special word of praise as he emptied the tank during a 62-minute stint on the field in which he came to the fore with great physicality as a ball carrier and on defence.