The record for the most points in a first half of Champions Cup knockout rugby lasted less than three hours. Bordeaux-Bègles and the Harlequins shared 40 points today in the first 40 minutes of their spectacular show.

Northampton Saints and the Pretoria Bulls erased this by 10 when they combined seven first-half tries in a home-and-away game that had to cause neck pain to the fans on the centre line. From almost all actions, running backs ran over or around the defenders. In the end, five more attempts were added as the Saints won the slugfest to reach the semi-finals of the elite European competition for the first time.

Her award for smacking an exhausted Bulls team is a date with the Leinster at Croke Park in early May. They have every chance of causing a upheaval if they can reproduce the actioning spark they showed here. However, if you do not correct your defense, Ireland’s first province will tear you to pieces.

It took a relative age – more than 10 minutes – to record the first score. Northampton’s full-back James Ramm ran an excellent line to pick up a flat pass on the stroke of half-time before dropping to the ground on the way out.

From then on it was a free-for-all. Cameron Hanekom immediately returned fire and took Courtney Lawes across the line. But Lawes made amends for squirming just after following Alex Coles’ wonderful break-up on the field.

Ollie Sleightholme then refused to be actioned as he fended off several Bulls players to open up a 28-10 lead. But the tourists rallied, first with hooker Akker van der Merwe, who was raging in the tram, and then with winger Sebastian de Klerk, who squeezed an interception in his own 22 meters, before defeating Sleightholme in an 80-meter sprint race. When Chris Smith converted, the game record reached 50.

Of course, many of those present needed a refreshing drink, and many did not return to their seats when Coles completed another stop-kick, which was caused by Alex Mitchell’s break. Ramm had his second when he collected a pass on an overlap, and from the next replay, de Klerk had a chalk attempt when Hanekom’s tackle in the build-up was considered harmful after examination.

The yellow card shown effectively ended the match as a contest. If the Saints had no problem scoring at will against 15, they would have little problem against a defensive line that misses a man. No sooner had the Bulls’ No. 8 taken a seat in the bin than Fraser Dingwall was on the scorecard.