Tommy Freeman scored two tries as Northampton displayed outstanding spirit in the altitude and heat to earn a Champions Cup bonus-point win over Bulls in South Africa.

The victory keeps up Northampton’s perfect start in Pool Three, with two wins from two and a maximum of 10 points.

In physically demanding conditions in Pretoria, the Saints held out in the face of the Bulls’ power, and rode the loss of captain George Furbank with an arm injury, to lead just after the half-hour mark through George Hendy.

The full-back, barely on for two minutes as Furbank’s replacement, took on Fin Smith’s offload after Fraser Dingwall had charged at the Bulls defense.

Bulls were quickly in front as Marcell Coetzee evaded Dingwall’s tackle and pumped through to score a try converted by Johan Goosen.

Northampton faced a further setback right at the end of the first half when prop Emmanuel Iyogun was sent to the sin bin.

But with the first-half clock in the red, and barely a minute after being reduced to 14 players, the visitors restored their lead as Alex Mitchell took a quick tap penalty and opened up the Bulls defense for Juarno Augustus to go over in the corner.

The Bulls had seen two tries ruled out in an opening half hour where they somehow failed to turn their physical dominance into points – and then another disallowed early in the second half as Canan Moodie was unable to ground the ball as he chased a kick through.

Smith extended the lead with a penalty before Freeman capitalized on a line-out to burst through David Kriel’s tackle – with the television match official ruling that he had managed to get the ball down.

But Cameron Hanekom surged out of a scrum and bounced off the referee to evade Mitchell and score to give the hosts hope.

Then, the number eight repeated the trick, bringing the hosts back to within a point with 10 minutes left.

Smith took advantage of the altitude to land a penalty almost from halfway and was narrowly off target with a drop-goal attempt from nearly as far out – before Freeman dived over again in the final four minutes to seal a bonus point and a memorable victory.