Premiership Rugby Cup: Gloucester captain Lewis Ludlow 'desperate' to win trophy

Gloucester captain Lewis Ludlow said he is "desperate" to win a first trophy with the club ahead of the Premiership Rugby Cup final on Friday.

The Cherry and Whites play Leicester in their first final appearance and chance for silverware in almost 10 years.

Gloucester have home advantage with the game being held at Kingsholm.

"It would be incredible, it's something that I've been very vocal about that I'm desperate to win something with this club," Ludlow said.

"If the Prem Cup is the start of that journey we're on then that's brilliant."

Gloucester are unbeaten in the competition, which was revamped this season to include Championship sides.

The pool games were held from September to early October, before the start of the Premiership season, and Gloucester were the only club to win all five of their group games.

They beat Exeter 17-14 in the semi-final four weeks ago, in what was their last competitive game.

"It's huge, you enter into these three competitions at the start of the year and we've got the chance to win one, at home, on a Friday night - the best time for us is a Friday night at Kingsholm. We can't wait," Ludlow told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"We spoke about it before the semi that these things don't come around in your career too often - if ever."

While Gloucester have struggled in the Premiership - they lost a club-record nine games in a row before they beat Sale in January - in the Premiership Rugby Cup they have played what director of rugby George Skivington called their "best rugby".

Gloucester last won a trophy in 2015 when they claimed the European Challenge Cup and Skivington said the chance to add another title to the cabinet was "huge".

"That's ultimately why we all do what we do and why we start out in this job," he said.

"We've worked very, very hard and the boys have worked really hard over a number of years, and I think this Prem Cup seems this year to be where we've played our best rugby.

"We all want to give something for the club, we all want to give something for the supporters, we never take for granted the support base we have here... we would love to pay that back by winning a trophy."

Only players who appeared in a pool game are eligible for the final and Skivington has selected what he said was the "strongest team" available for the match, with Ludlow, Ruann Ackermann, Zach Mercer, Ollie Thorley and Val Rapava-Ruskin in the starting 15 - the latter returning after a five-month spell out with a knee injury.

"We've used the time to refresh, regenerate, concentrate on some bits that we think we could be better at, and we've had a good bit of time to look at Leicester," Skivington added.

"We've used it the way we think is the most productive, we've tried to keep everybody fresh and get game ready this week in the week building up to the game."