Northampton Saints slaughter hapless fringe Bulls

December is meant to be the month of peace and goodwill but life doesn’t get any easier for new Bulls coach Johan Ackermann after his team were humiliated 50-5 by Northampton Saints in their Champions Cup match on Sunday at Franklin’s Gardens.

The game was an ideal opportunity for numerous Bulls players who are not necessarily first-choice in their positions to push their case for more opportunity as Ackermann fielded a second-string outfit away to last season’s losing finalists.

Sadly, none of the Bulls players advanced their cause with the visitors producing an error-ridden, hapless display, the true awfulness of it not being shown by the scoreboard because Northampton themselves were decidedly messy for the first 55 minutes.

As has often been the case recently, the Bulls problems started with a defence that doesn’t inspire confidence at all, mostly due to how slow they are to react to what is happening in front of them. They were often caught being too narrow - left wing George Hendy scored a hat-trick of tries and right wing Ollie Sleightholme grabbed a brace - and the Bulls were particularly recalcitrant when wrapping around on the short side, which the Saints exploited ruthlessly.

Never being able to slow down the Northampton ruck ball and also trying to run from their own territory way too often doesn’t help either and the Bulls were a distant second in the territory and possession stakes.

The Bulls were still in the game at halftime, despite it being a one-sided first half, the home side scoring two tries to one to lead 14-5.

The Bulls could have opened the scoring with a penalty in the fourth minute, but flyhalf Kade Wolhuter produced a terrible strike and missed. It was a portent of a nightmare game for the player on loan from the Lions, Wolhuter also missing penalty kicks to touch three times, a criminal release of pressure. It was baffling that the steady Keagan Johannes was only brought on to replace him after 66 minutes, by which time Northampton were already 40-5 up.

The biggest blow for the Bulls came in the 53rd minute when loosehead prop Alulutho Tshakweni was yellow-carded for rashly tripping Saints replacement prop Emmanuel Iyogun, who he thought had deliberately tripped him.

Northampton were 21-5 up at the time and they finally clicked playing against 14 men as they ran in five more tries.

Scorers

• Northampton Saints - Tries: Ollie Sleightholme (2), George Hendy (3), Henry Pollock, Alex Coles, Josh Kemeny. Conversions: Fin Smith (5).
• Bulls - Try: Stravino Jacobs.