Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'Violence is everywhere' - Ulster fullback fears return to SA

(Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Ulster fullback Louis Ludik would like to stay in Ireland after his rugby career ends, saying he fears life back home in South Africa.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 33-year-old, who spent seven years in Super Rugby with the Lions and Sharks and a year in France at Agen, moved to Belfast with wife Chamé in 2014.

WATCH: RugbyPass were lucky enough to meet Welsh Rugby legends James Hook and Shane Williams.

Video Spacer

Ludik and his wife welcomed baby Leo to a growing family four years ago and they look set to abide in Belfast for good after recently launching a South African-style sausage company called HellBent.

Last year Chamé shared a video of a 56-year-old woman getting shot dead in her car in SA which went viral.

In an interview with the Irish Mirror, Ludik said: “It’s no shock, really, no. That happens, probably every day. Somewhere. There’s so many murders, and things like that happening. It’s scary… it’s shocking to watch but it’s a reality.

“The scary thing is that’s the norm in South Africa. Because violence is everywhere, you get used to it.

ADVERTISEMENT

“So when you step out of that environment, you realise how unnatural it actually is.”

Ludik says his wife is still scared to walk on her own after she was involved in a smash and grab “a couple of times”.

“My sister too, and my wife’s dad was hijacked when she was 15,” he said.

“Fortunately nothing like that has happened to me, but my wife is adamant she wants to stay here because she feels safe.”

He added: “It’s such a small thing, but it’s so nice to be able to go home to your house and know you’re safe.

ADVERTISEMENT

“You don’t have to worry. You get very comfortable – we don’t even lock our doors here sometimes!

“In South Africa you have to have gates, locks, you have to protect yourself. It’s so uncomfortable and that’s why so many people emigrate, they see how life can be elsewhere.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 19 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

30 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING World Cup-winning halfback on Cam Roigard’s substitution in France loss World Cup-winning halfback on Cam Roigard’s substitution vs. France
Search