Saints skipper Ludlam 'absolutely buzzing' as clock ticks towards semi-final

The black, green and gold go to StoneX Stadium desperate to book a place in the grand final, against the winners of the Sale-Leicester match.

And at Monday's media session, Ludlam could barely contain his excitement.

"I'm buzzing for it, absolutely buzzing for it," said the Saints skipper.

"I woke up this morning and I was probably a bit too excited to come to training.

"We've had a really good day of training and now it's about settling ourselves down, making sure we get everything covered off for the week and then building ourselves back up for the weekend.

"The boys are looking forward to the challenge.

"We're emotionally ready and, come the end of the week, I'm sure we'll be tactically ready as well."

Saints have not played a league game since thrashing Newcastle Falcons 66-5 at Kingston Park on April 21.

But Ludlam said: "It's been a good few weeks.

"It's obviously been a little bitty with the schedule and it's been hard with no competitive fixtures but I think we've benefited from having a proper block where we can put loads of energy into our conditioning and making sure our game's in the right place to go and put ourselves in the best position to go and win play-offs.

"It's been positive and the boys are ready to go now."

Saints were in the semi-finals last season, delivering a strong showing before eventually losing 27-14 to Leicester, who would go on to beat Saracens in the showpiece.

And Ludlam said: "You always take lessons from past experiences and now we understand semi-finals don't come around that often.

"We just want to enjoy the situation and enjoy the challenge of it.

"Just like last year, we're underdogs and we probably shocked ourselves a little bit in how close we did come and how well we did perform.

"When we go out there this weekend and we're competing and performing, we can't shy away from that challenge and we've got to keep going and keep enjoying it."

So does Ludlam truly believe Saints can beat table-topping Saracens?

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't think we could win it," he said.