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LOUIS LUDIK
You must have been delighted to get the
game time under your belt in the pre season?
Absolutely. Especially after last season, there
was a couple of mouths I couldn’t play which
was tough so it’s great to be on the field again.
Even though it didn’t go the way we wanted it to
go it was good fun being out there.
How do you feel the pre season went for you
in particular?
I think, for me, pre season went well; we
all trained very hard. Pre season is always
tough but it’s good to get the miles in. Our
conditioning team are brilliant; they know
exactly what they are doing. We could feel it;
even though the results didn’t go our way all the
guys felt fit during those pre season games so
we are ready to take on the new season and
really looking forward to it.
We didn’t get the pre-season result here at
Kingspan Stadium but tonight’s first game of
the competition offers an opportunity to put
that right?
The Wasps game was very tough but it was
great to see the enthusiasm of our younger
players. The guys are really looking forward to
tonight. I’ve played against the Cheetahs quite a
few times in South Africa so know what they’re
all about. They’ve got some great players over
there. It’s a very exciting, young team, so I think
it will be tough on defence as they like to run all
over the park and off load and they have a lot
of speed. They’re not the biggest guys but they
have extreme pace and it’s going to be tough to
catch them but we’re looking forward to it and
we know what to expect so it’s going to be fun.
It’s an exciting time for everyone with the
revamp of the PRO14 as it’s know known. As
a South African, is it as exciting for you and
are you intrigued to see what it will bring?
Yeah absolutely. There was a lot of speculation
beforehand and we were just hoping it would
come through. South Africans are very
excited I think it’s especially great for both the
competition and for the supporters, as it offers
something new and fresh. it’s always great
seeing new teams, new talent, new guys and
new styles of play, especially from the Southern
Hemisphere. It’s going to interesting for them as
well, especially in winter time seeing how they
adapt, it’s going to be a bit wetter. But for me,
playing against South African teams again is
very exciting and the thought of maybe touring
back to South Africa again to play on the old
fields and see my family would be great.
We spoke to Ulster utility back Loius Ludik about pre-season, getting back on
the playing field and introduction of South African teams to the PRO14.