Humphreys back at helm

Although Harry Williams was not in a position to finalise his starting line-up for Saturday's semi-final against Stade Francais at Ravenhill, David Humphreys has been declared fit for the match and will captain the side once more.

Humphreys sustained a shoulder injury in the dying minutes of the dramatic quarter-final victory over 1996 European champions Toulouse on December 11th when making a try-saving tackle on Michel Marfaing.

"Initially I was a bit worried about being fit for the semi-final but I am fine now and I have been taking increased contact during the week," said Humphreys at a press conference in Ravenhill yesterday.

The Ulster coach has named a 22-man squad which includes other recent injury victims such as Mark McCall (sidelined for 18 weeks by a neck injury) and Stephen Bell, and hopes to announce his starting XV tomorrow.

Meanwhile, having fielded more of a second string side in the French championship last weekend against Castres (an ominous statement of intent for this coming Saturday), Stade Francais have reverted to the team and replacements which accounted for Pontypridd by 71-14 in the quarter-finals.

This means that club captain and former international hooker Vincent Moscato - apparently still carrying the can for a surprise French Championship defeat to Biarritz the week before the Pontypridd game - has to be content with a place on the replacements' bench as Laurent Pedrosa retains his place. He will be accompanied there by three other internationals in Franck Comba, Marc Lievremont and Serge Simon.

However, the big-spending Parisian club will still have nine internationals in their starting line-up, and will be led by the incomparable Diego Dominguez. Aside from the Argentinian-born Dominguez, Italy's record points scorer, Stade's cosmopolitan make-up is reflected in the presence of a South African tight-head, Pieter de Villiers, English flanker Richard Pool-Jones and a couple of Kiwis, centre Cliff Mytton and lock Darren George.

Although reared in New Zealand, the six foot eight inch, 17-plus stone George hails from Tonyrefail in the Rhondda Valley, and has declared his interest in playing for Wales. "I'm not counting my chickens but my dream is to play for Wales," said George.

Asked whether the Stade Francais team was enough to send a shiver down his spine, Williams retorted: "I've been shivering all week." He conceded: "Stade Francais don't have a weakness in their side and are very strong up front. This is a notch up in the competition for us and an even bigger challenge than the Toulouse quarter-final.

"We'll need to play as well as we played against Toulouse; probably better than we played against Toulouse. It's a tall order but all we can do is our best."

The easy-going Williams is nonetheless clearly relishing the thought of Saturday's game, and indeed every minute of the most successful phase of his coaching career. Born and reared in Belfast, and a schoolteacher by profession, Williams played and then, from 1977 to '86, coached Bangor, as well as the Ireland A side and Bective Rangers. In between, he coached Ulster to four successive inter-provincial titles from '87 to '90 in which the province didn't lose one game to local opposition. Even that, however, pales in comparison to Ulster's European odyssey.

Ask him what the most pleasing feature of it has been and Williams says: "The way everybody has stuck together. We're a happy camp - everybody is happy in each other's company - there's a great cameraderie amongst the boys and that's as pleasing as anything else. When that's right, and that's as much by accident as design, it becomes really easy for the coach."

He comes across as very much a benign dictator, and with the return of prodigal internationals such as Humphreys and Justin Fitzpatrick this season, has been even more willing to give the players responsibility. He always plays down his role.

The reason for Ulster's success is simply that "everyone is playing well. No-one is playing badly."

Yet, at one point from early September to early October, Ulster went four games without a win - conceding over 30 points in each game as a draw with Edinburgh Reivers was sandwiched by heavy defeats to Leinster, by 35-11 (their only Ravenhill defeat in nine games this season), to Toulouse (39-3) and Munster (31-9).

Since when, Ulster have put together a run of six successive wins; the turning point coming when Williams decided to concentrate on his 17 full-timers, and make the part-timers adapt - rather than the other way around prior to the 61-28 win away to Ebbw Vale which kick-started their unbeaten run.

"It's day-time training. That's the main factor, and everybody's got a quality of life now including me. The players were basically tired. The part-timers were working from 6.30 in the morning through to 10.00 at night - some of them weren't getting home until 11 and some of them had their own job to do in the middle of that.

"We've very few part-timers in the team now. Most of the part-timers are on the bench. They're not precluded but it's a big bonus for us that the squad is mostly full-timers. We made a conscious decision to go to day-time training and the part-timers just had to fit in around us."

A salient lesson for Williams then, and perhaps for the future direction of the provinces generally.

Ulster (squad): S Mason, S Coulter, J Bell, M McCall, J Cunningham, S Duncan, A Parke, D Humphreys (captain), B Cunningham, A Matchett, S Bell, J Fitzpatrick, A Clarke, R Weir, R Irwin, G Leslie, M Blair, G Longwell, S McKinty, D Topping, A Ward, T McWhirter.

Stade Francais: S Viars; A Gomes, R Dourthe, C Mytton, T Lombard; D Dominguez (captain), C Laussucq; S Marconnet, L Pedrosa, P de Villiers, H Chaffardon, D George, C Moni, R PoolJones, C Juillet. Replacements: L Lousteau, F Comba, S Keith, D Auradou, M Lievremont, V Moscato, S Simon.

Referee: J Fleming (Scotland).