‘When I finish playing I want to stay involved – even if it’s just cleaning the toilets’ – Gloucester stalwart’s pledge as they look to bounce back from record-breaking horror show
Gloucester duo Lewis Ludlow and George Skivington.
Lewis Ludlow bears the scars from the last time Gloucester played away in the Gallagher Premiership.
The 90 points Northampton stuck on the Cherry and Whites, the 14 tries scored without so much as a penalty goal in reply.
It was Gloucester‘s worst-ever league defeat and the biggest winning margin for a home team in Premiership history.
Backed his boss
Yet almost as memorable was the captain’s reaction to social media criticism of the day one of rugby’s great clubs hit rock bottom.
“Clueless, you lot,” tweeted Ludlow to fans calling for director of rugby George Skivington to be sacked.
He acknowledged the players were as “angry and embarrassed” as the supporters and that the performance was “nowhere near good enough from this shirt”.
But it was the “clueless” bit that stuck.
To his credit Ludlow, one of only five players ever to captain England on debut, immediately went on the fan podcast which had called for Skivington’s head.
“I apologise for Twittering on emotion which is not good for anyone to do post-match,” he told Cherry Jam. “I didn’t mean it in that way at all. It wasn’t meant like that.”
As Gloucester prepare for their first Premiership away day since, at derby rivals Bristol under the Friday night lights, Ludlow has opened up for the first time on that episode and the weight of responsibility he feels to the badge.
His words leave no doubt as to what the club and its supporters mean to him – nor his commitment to staying in the fight and leading Gloucester back to better times.
“Put it this way,” he tells Planet Rugby. “When I finish playing I’ll definitely be a fan and I’ll hopefully have a job here somewhere. That’s the plan. To stay involved, even if it’s just cleaning the toilets.
“This club means everything to me, as I know it does the supporters who live for each weekend. My biggest wish is that when I retire people say, ‘He was a proper Gloucester bloke, he did everything he could for the team’.”
Ludlow is in his fifth season as skipper. Bar a fifth placed finish in 2022, Gloucester have languished in the lower reaches throughout that time. Frustration grew last season as they lost 14 of their last 16 league games, boiling over at Northampton.
“Of course we want to do better in the league,” says Ludlow. “After the Saints game we were angry. We were gutted. We were devastated.
“But it was getting to the point where people thought we didn’t care. There was a perception that the players weren’t trying.
“I felt a responsibility as club captain to set the record straight. We were seeing GPS scores through the roof in training, people with collisions they’d never achieved before, running metres they’d never managed before.
“We were trying alright. We were working harder than ever, we just weren’t getting it right and were in a rut we couldn’t change.
“I’ll always be honest,” Ludlow continues. “Because I struggle to live in a world where people are not. You won’t get media-training type answers from me.
“Before I went on the podcast the Monday after [Northampton] I said to them, ‘you guys are supposed to be our biggest supporters, you claim to be closer to the club than anyone else. Please have some understanding, don’t just throw stones from the other side’.
“I wasn’t trying to excuse anything, more explain the reality. The casual fan maybe doesn’t realise that when you play 22 games on the spin, your body is falling apart, you’re being held together by tape and tablets to play.
“But you’re still desperate to represent the club in the best way possible.”
As the league ran away from them, Skivington took the decision to focus on the cup competitions. Winning the Premiership Cup and reaching the European Challenge Cup final bought him time.
But an opening day loss at home to Saracens has put the pressure back on – especially given the hope raised by the summer arrival of international trio Tomos Williams, Gareth Anscombe and Christian Wade.
Williams takes over the armband in Ludlow’s absence at Ashton Gate but the flanker insists he will never walk away from the captaincy.
“It’s not something I’d ever relinquish. I’ll never give it up for as long as I’m required,” he says.
“I look around and see the young boys coming through, see the signings we have made. At some point this is going to click. I’m desperate to be involved when it does.”