Lewis Ludlam capped off a remarkable breakthrough season in 2018/19 with a trip to the Rugby World Cup in Japan to represent England.

The 24-year-old flanker earned six caps in the Red Rose’s run to the final – surely the first of many for one of the standout players of Saints’ new generation of starlets.

Ludlam burst into the spotlight during Chris Boyd’s first at the helm in Northampton, making himself a first-team regular for the first time in his fledgling career and catching the eye with dogged ball-carrying and furious work-rate.

Originally a centre, Ludlam began his career at Ipswich before joining Colchester and attending St Joseph’s College in Northampton.

The back row was initially released from Saints’ Academy set-up, but his tenacity earned him a recall for the U18s side before moving into the Senior Academy on a full-time basis.

Ludlam impressed at international age-group level, winning the man-of-the-match award on his England Under-18s debut and being named the Red Rose’s Player of the Tournament in the 2015 World Rugby Under-20s Championship, where they made the final.

He made his first-team debut in 2016/17 and helped scoop back-to-back Premiership Rugby A League titles in 2017 and 2018 with the Wanderers’ side.

But it was not until Boyd’s arrival at Franklin’s Gardens that he really came to the fore, playing 27 times in that first campaign under the Kiwi and then bringing up a half century of appearances in Black, Green and Gold at the end of 2019.