Northampton ambush Bulls on the road to extend perfect Champions Cup start
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The English champions have not been able to triumph on the road in defence of their title this season, but they choose Pretoria, of all places, the most inhospitable of venues, home of the most abrasive of teams, to notch up a first away win. They do so with a bonus point to complete the opening two matches of their Champions Cup campaign with a maximum haul.
![[South Africa’s Juarno Augustus scores a try for Northampton in Pretoria.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1bee6e5ece74a1fa484fe485590358e5f7126964/0_184_4485_3094/master/4485.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Quite how they did it defies analysis, other than to say this was a classic ambush. Hardly any ball, hardly any territory, but an absolute masterclass of obdurate defence in the face of an onslaught, allied with deadly accuracy when offered any glimpse of an opportunity. It helped that the Bulls, struggling to rediscover their form of last season, were all fingers and thumbs – very large fingers and thumbs – butchering chance after chance. They smashed Northampton at scrum-time in the first half, Emmanuel Iyogun shown a yellow card just before the break, but could do nothing with it.
Indeed, it was Northampton who snatched a try just after he had gone, turning over a loose Bulls lineout, before Alex Mitchell tapped and went when the Bulls infringed, darting and feeding Juarno Augustus a couple of phases later to send the No 8 over for Saints’ second and an outrageous 12-7 half-time lead.
Alex Dombrandt and Cadan Murley plundered hat-tricks as Harlequins campaign was given liftoff with a 53-16 victory over the Stormers. A week after falling to Racing 92 in Paris, Quins produced an eight-try demolition of South African visitors who were missing seven Springboks to injury including Manie Libbok, Damian Willemse and Frans Malherbe.
