Skippering Saints was 'surreal' for Ludlam

Lewis Ludlam says it was 'surreal' to skipper Saints for the first time on Saturday.
Lewis Ludlam scored on his first outing as Saints skipper (picture: Sharon Lucey)Lewis Ludlam scored on his first outing as Saints skipper (picture: Sharon Lucey)
Lewis Ludlam scored on his first outing as Saints skipper (picture: Sharon Lucey)

The 23-year-old flanker led his boyhood club out at Allianz Park for the game against Saracens.

It wasn't to be a successful outing for Saints as they fell 36-3 down before eventually losing 36-17 in the Gallagher Premiership clash.

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And though Ludlam would have loved the result to be different, he savoured every second of being the Saints captain.

"It's surreal," said the Academy graduate, who was making his 36th appearance for the Saints first team. "It's my childhood club and I've seen lots of captains before me.

"It's an honour to wear the captain's armband and I just thank (Saints boss) Chris Boyd for putting faith in me and the other youngsters.

"It just wasn't quite the result we wanted.

"The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up and hopefully I'll get the chance to captain the team again, hopefully with a better result."

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Saracens scored six tries before Reece Marshall and Ludlam dotted down to give the scoreline a little more respectability.

And Ludlam said: "Our defence was a lot better second half and they didn't have as much front-foot ball but it was too late for us.

"We made too many errors in the first half and they're a quality side so they're going to feed off that.

"We didn't deal with the pressure well enough.

"They've got a simple game plan to put pressure on you, kick to the corners and we didn't deal with it well enough in the first half.

"Their intensity is incredible.

"In attack, they get on the front foot and we didn't deal with their big ball carriers well enough."