The record for most points in a first half of Champions Cup knockout rugby stood for less than three hours. Earlier in the day Bordeaux-Bègles and Harlequins shared 40 points in the opening 40 minutes of their spectacular show.
Northampton Saints and the Bulls from Pretoria cleared that by 10 as they combined for seven first-half tries in a back and forth game that must have caused neck pains for supporters on the halfway line. From almost every attack, ball carriers ran over or around defenders. A further five tries were added by the end as the Saints won the slugfest to advance to the semi-finals of Europe’s elite competition for the first time since 2011.
Their prize for battering a depleted Bulls outfit is a date with Leinster at Croke Park in early May. They’ll have every chance of causing an upset if they can replicate the attacking spark they showed here. However, unless they rectify their defence, Ireland’s premier province will tear them to shreds.
It took a relative age – over 10 minutes – to register the first score. Northampton’s full-back James Ramm ran a superb line to collect a flat pass at pace before dummying en route to touch down. From there it was a free-for-all. Cameron Hanekom hit back immediately, carrying Courtney Lawes with him across the line. But Lawes made amends to wriggle over shortly after having followed Alex Coles’ wonderful break upfield.
Ollie Sleightholme then refused to be tackled as he fended off several Bulls players to open a 28-10 lead. But the tourists rallied, first with hooker Akker van der Merwe rampaging down the tram and then with winger Sebastian de Klerk pinching an intercept inside his own 22-metre before beating Sleightholme in an 80-metre sprint race. Chris Smith’s conversion saw the game’s tally reach 50.
Leinster emphatically ended La Rochelle's bid for a hat-trick of Champions Cup titles by beating them 40-13 at the Aviva Stadium. Ronan O'Gara's team defeated Leinster in the last two finals by a combined margin of just four points.
But La Rochelle's quest for silverware ended at the quarter-final stage this time around as Leinster marched on in pursuit of a record-equalling fifth tournament triumph.
Wing James Lowe (2), scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park, flanker Ryan Baird and hooker Dan Sheehan scored tries, while fly-half Ross Byrne kicked three conversions and three penalties as Leinster never looked in danger of suffering another loss to their fierce rivals.
La Rochelle saw prop Louis Penverne go over for a try on the stroke of half-time, with Antoine Hastoy adding two penalties and a conversion. But they were blown away during the second period, failing to score a point, as Leinster stormed into yet another Champions Cup semi-final.
Byrne opened the scoring with an eighth-minute penalty from 45 metres, and Leinster dominated the early exchanges, which was underlined when they scored their opening try just nine minutes later. La Rochelle's defence was stretched in all directions before Lowe touched down and Byrne converted, before Byrne and Hastoy kicked penalties and a second Hastoy three-pointer made it 13-6.
Another Byrne strike restored a 10-point lead before Leinster struck again following clever interplay between Lowe and Gibson-Park that ended with the scrum-half sprinting over unopposed. Byrne's conversion left Leinster in charge of the contest, but they were unable to close out the opening 40 minutes before their opponents dragged themselves back into contention.
Leinster infringed inside their 22 and La Rochelle's powerful driving lineout game was graphically illustrated when Penverne touched down and Hastoy converted to make it 23-13 at the break.
But La Rochelle were dealt a double blow early in the second period, conceding another try and seeing scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow carried off. Baird was the beneficiary of a poor attempted tackle from Hastoy – and Byrne converted after a lengthy delay while Kerr-Barlow received treatment before leaving the field.
La Rochelle knew they had to score next or there was no way back, but they conceded two tries in four minutes. Sheehan claimed the first following flanker Josh van der Flier's powerful surge, then Lowe added his second when he finished impressively after chasing a kick into space. PA Media
Naturally, many in attendance needed a refreshing drink and many hadn’t returned to their seats when Coles finished off another scything set piece move sparked by Alex Mitchell’s break. Ramm had his second when he gathered a pass on an overlap and, from the subsequent restart, de Klerk had a try chalked off as Hanekom’s tackle in the buildup was deemed dangerous after review.
The yellow card shown effectively ended the game as a contest. If Saints had no trouble scoring at will against 15, they’d have little trouble against a defensive line missing a man. No sooner had the Bulls No 8 taken his seat in the sin-bin, Fraser Dingwall was on the scorecard.
At the centre of it all was Fin Smith, Northampton’s 21-year-old maestro at fly-half. Even amidst all the chaos he was the embodiment of calm, picking the right pass, positioning teammates as if they were chess pieces in a four dimensional game. With Mitchell on his inside, and a blistering backline to unleash, he justified the hype.
Of course it helped that the Bulls left 13 regular starters, including three recent World Cup winners, at home. The understudies in light blue played with visible pride, but they were a disjointed bunch as they failed to dismiss accusations that their weakened squad was an insult to the tournament. Mitchell scored Northampton’s eighth try and Juarno Augustus, a former South African under-20 player, bagged the ninth. The Saints’ quest for a Premiership and Champions Cup double goes marching on.
