Lewis Wesley Ludlam (born 8 December 1995) is an English professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who plays as a flanker for

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the National Rugby League (France), France National Rugby League, also ...

club

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

and formerly for the England national team.

Early life

Ludlam was born in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

, into a family who followed

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

. He is of paternal

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

and maternal Guyanese descent. He attended Kesgrave High School before being recruited on a sports scholarship to a renowned local rugby school,

St Joseph's College, Ipswich St Joseph's College is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private school for day and boarding pupils between the ages of 2 and 19 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. With usually 550-600 pupils on the roll, the College is located ...

, and played at Ipswich Rugby Club before joining Colchester RFC.

Junior career

Ludlam featured on three occasions at the St Joseph's Rugby Festival, first appearing in the under-18 competition as a 15-year-old in 2011, and was also a key member of the side that reached the

Daily Mail Cup The National Schools Cup (currently known as the Continental Tyres Schools Cup for sponsorship reasons) are a set of annual English schools' rugby union cup competitions, with the U18 Cup being the main competition. The finals of the Cup and Vase ...

semi final in the same year. Ludlam captained Waterhead Wolverines, coached by Geoff Owen MBE, to its third victory in the national schools festival in 2013 in front of a raucous home crowd and also captained the school at U16 level to its first win at the Rosslyn Park national schools sevens competition in 2012. Despite being released by Saints' EPDG Academy, Ludlam regained a place in the Saints' Under-18s and he moved up to the Saints' Senior Academy full time a few years later. Ludlam then earned the call to the England U18s where he featured in their unbeaten 2014 tour of South Africa. The following year saw Ludlam represent the England U20 team that lost to

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in the final of the

2015 World Rugby Under 20 Championship The 2015 World Rugby Under 20 Championship was the eighth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. The event was organised for the second time in Italy by rugby's governing body, World Rugby. Twelve nations played i ...

. He was subsequently voted England's player of the tournament by his peers.

Club career

During his time at Saints, Ludlam has spent short periods of his senior career on dual registration with

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

Moseley Moseley ( ') is an affluent suburb in south Birmingham, England, south of the city centre. It is located within the eponymous Moseley ward of the constituency of Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley (UK Parliament constituency), Hall Green and ...

and

Rotherham Titans Rotherham Rugby Union Football Club, or Rotherham Titans is a rugby union club from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, currently playing in the third tier of the English rugby union league system, following their promotion from the National League ...

. Breaking into Saints' first-team squad in the 2016–17 campaign, Ludlam made his first-team debut in the

Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...

opener that season and featured in a further 6 games for the club. Ludlam helped Saints' second team, the Wanderers, lift the Aviva 'A' League trophy in 2016–2017, defeating Gloucester United in the final for the title and again in 2017–2018 winning the final against a very strong Exeter Braves side. Ludlam made his full Premiership debut in the first game of the 2017–2018 season against

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

in the

London Double Header The London Double Header ran between 2004 and 2017 and typically opened the season of Premiership Rugby (currently known as the Gallagher Premiership due to sponsorship), the top rugby union league in England. Two games were played consecutively a ...

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

, scoring his first senior try for the club in the heavy 24–55 defeat to the European Champions. Ludlam's real breakout season for Saints came in the 2018–2019 campaign where he made 27 appearances for the club, scoring four tries and being one of the club's most consistent performers in new director of rugby, Chris Boyd’s first year in charge. From a disappointing previous season, Saints exceeded expectations by reaching a play off semi-final which secured qualification for the

European Rugby Champions Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pr ...

and won the

Premiership Rugby Cup The Premiership Rugby Cup is an English rugby union knockout cup competition for teams in Premiership Rugby and from the 2023–24 season the RFU Championship. It was created in 2018 to replace the Anglo-Welsh Cup after the withdrawal of the Wels ...

. Ludlam was one of a number of youngsters that Boyd put his faith in, playing an expansive entertaining brand of rugby that delighted Saints fans. In November 2020 it was announced that Ludlam would become club co-captain with Alex Waller. Subsequently, from the start of the 2021 to 2022 season, Ludlam would take on the solo captaincy of the team. On 24 June 2024, Ludlam would end his England career as he signs a three-year deal to join top French side

in the

from the 2024-25 season.

International career

In June 2019 he was one of four uncapped players named in England's preliminary World Cup training squad and on 11 August 2019 made his debut in a warm-up match against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. He was included in the squad for the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup () was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening matc ...

and made four appearances during the tournament, scoring his first international try in the pool fixture against the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Over the next 4 years under Eddie Jones, further caps would be fairly limited but in 2023 under new head coach, Steve Borthwick, Ludlam returned to play every minute of the 2023 Six Nations.

List of international tries

Personal life

Ludlam has talked about the importance of 'drawing in' younger spectators to watch rugby, and questioned if 'less is more' in terms of the excitement level of the number of competitions and games played.

Honours

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

Webb Ellis Cup The Webb Ellis Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the men's Rugby World Cup, the premier competition in men's international rugby union. The Cup is named after William Webb Ellis, who is often credited as being the inventor of rugby foot ...

**Runner up:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ludlam, Lewis 1995 births Living people Coventry R.F.C. players England international rugby union players English people of Guyanese descent English people of Palestinian descent English rugby union players Birmingham Moseley Rugby players Northampton Saints players People educated at Kesgrave High School People educated at St Joseph's College, Ipswich Rotherham Titans players Rugby union flankers Rugby union players from Ipswich 2019 Rugby World Cup players 2023 Rugby World Cup players Sportspeople of Guyanese descent