Positioned to cope with pressure

Gerry Thornley talks to outhalf David Humphreys, a 'wily veteran' who is one of the great enduring talents from the amateur era

So there he was last Sunday. Grateful for an opportunity to reclaim the Ireland number 10 jersey but knowing he only has the opportunity because the incumbent is injured. Mess up and David Humphreys will have bench splinters for much of World Cup year. Play well and he'll have thrown down a marker.

And there he'll be again today.

"It's a different type of pressure," he says, adding with a knowing smile: "If it hadn't gone well there would have been one or two people who may have had the knives out again and of course you're aware of that."

That said, Humphreys admits his mental preparation was helped by not having more than four days to stew on these considerations. He's aware of the theory he's more of a confidence or mood player than most, and that the first few touches go a long way to determining how he's going to play.

"I honestly don't think it's as bad now as it used to be. In some Ulster games this season I've done two or three terrible things and I actually don't think it's affected me."

With maturity and experience comes calmness? "I had a good laugh in Edinburgh when I read one of the Scottish papers calling me 'a wily veteran'. What is going on here?" he laughs. "I was very, very relaxed going into the game. Sitting there and watching the veterans' game beforehand - seeing some of my old team-mates attempting to run." (Mention of Gary Halpin, particularly, brings a smile.)

"I know there was pressure on me going into the game but going into the game I honestly didn't feel under as much pressure."

He used to tie himself up in knots, but not anymore. "I'm determined to approach every game in the Six Nations as if it's going to be my last - whether I get another one who knows? As I said last week this is probably the last time I'll ever play in Murrayfield and I didn't want to finish my career having never beaten Scotland over there."

Aside from his match-winning 26-point haul, one feature of his game which went strikingly well was Humphreys's defence. Predictably his channel was targeted, but not only did he make some big tackles he also led the line up very aggressively.

"It's something I've improved massively on in the last two years. With Ulster it's something we've worked very hard on and Mike Ford (Ireland defence coach) doesn't let us rest on our laurels. This week is going to be a big test because physically they're enormous," he says, in ready expectation of the 6ft 1ins, 16½ stone Cristian Stoica and co being sent down his channel this afternoon.

It goes with the territory. "Unless you're Jonny Wilkinson, every outhalf is going to be targeted. Whether it be Andrew Mehrtens or whoever, Jonny Wilkinson is the exception to the rule."

You suggest maybe it wasn't always his favourite part of the game. "You could say that," he agrees. That said, he's had a change of attitude. "Ten years ago if somebody ran at me, 'it's not my job'. Now if somebody runs at me I try to make sure it's my job."

Another criticism is that he had to be encouraged out of the safety valve of the pocket.

"Whoever watches the game, if that's their view that's fine," he responds, a little tetchily, "but what you've got to bear in mind is that when you play for Ulster you play a certain game which isn't necessarily a game with me playing on the gain line, because the players don't respond to that as well as other things. Y'know, you've got to cut your cloth."

It seemed, to the outside eye, Humphreys initially needed some encouragement from Peter Stringer's passing to play flatter and closer to the gain line, though the outhalf rejects this view. Granted, even when a pass sailed across him, he turned, gathered, switched back to the blindside and linked with Denis Hickie in the prelude to one of his first-half penalties.

He also reveals a deeper alignment was a ploy which had been learned from the last disaster in Murrayfield when the Scottish line cramped Ireland's style."Some of the patterns we have involve lying a lot deeper than we probably would have in the past."

By his own admission he has only played "two or three decent games" for Ulster this season. Aggravating an ankle injury after the Six Nations pretty much sidelined him for the rest of last season, and as number two to Ronan O'Gara prior to last week he had started just one of Ireland's previous nine internationals. Replacement cameos don't really do it for him and there's a boredom threshold, all the more so for a 31-year-old whose career endgame is looming.

"Yeah, it's been a very frustrating season. I think this time last year I had played over 20 games, whereas I've played 13 games since last April. It's not the season you would have chosen. When you're training hard you want the release of a game every week."

That said, he's in better shape than he was four or five years ago. He plays to win, dismissing his landmark as Ireland's most prolific points scorer in the championship with the observation that O'Gara will probably overtake it within a year.

"I'd rather I miss 10 out of 10 kicks and Ireland win by a point. The winning is just everything. Could you imagine if we'd lost to Scotland, and try to get yourself to play this game? Five days later that's tough. That's the part that's going to be toughest in the Six Nations. Mentally getting yourself ready for the next game."

It amuses him how much he's changed as a player from, say, five or 10 years ago, particularly the notion that coaches and team-mates alike from his days at Queen's University would one day observe him as something of a kicking outhalf. Back then he ran everything, partly because he couldn't kick it.

DESPITE an eight-from-nine haul last week, his strike rate has dipped with Ulster this season, though in the last two or three years he has become a better place-kicker, "by miles", and one of the more remarkable aspects of this is that he has never really had a place-kicking guru ala Dave Alred. Granted, Alred was employed occasionally by London Irish in Humphreys's time there, but he kicked very badly in his time at Sunbury "for a whole variety of reasons".

The greater accuracy he attributes to practice, quoting Gary Player - "the harder I work, the luckier I get". Ironically he maintains when his place-kicking is good his golf is appalling and vice versa.

There are the increased rugby demands of recent seasons and then there's fatherhood to Katie (three in July) and James (18 months).

"It's difficult being away so much in the Six Nations, but it's something to really look forward to when you come home. And even if rugby matches have gone badly they don't know that."

The end isn't quite nigh yet for one of the great enduring talents from the amateur era. With the benefits of professionalism Ireland's all-round improvement in the past few years, and his own experience, he's never been a more complete player.

This, in part, he attributes to the emergence of O'Gara. "Ronan has been outstanding for the last 12 months, whether it be for Munster or Ireland. I honestly think he raised the bar for outhalves in Ireland. Whether I reached that level or not last weekend is very subjective, but when I go out again this week that's the level I'm aspiring to play to. If I don't he'll be straight back in. If I do he may still be straight back in but at least I'll have produced two performances which justify my position as part of the squad."

With rugby not turning professional until he was 25, he believes had the best of both worlds.

"In some ways I feel sorry for the guys coming out now with these huge decisions to make about whether they should go into full-time rugby. If you're Brian O'Driscoll it's alright, but if you were a David Humphreys-type person coming out now and you weren't sure what was going to happen, it's not like soccer where you can make a living for life. Rugby careers will get shorter, and it's a very difficult position to be in."

Regrets? No. Andfor a talent that at one point might have been deemed unfulfilled, it's panned out pretty well.

"I've been lucky to be involved in every Six Nations game since February 1996," he points out proudly of a run of 33 championship games stretching back to his debut against France. "So I can't have too many regrets."