Throughout the grim times, David Humphreys was far more a victim than a cause. That's partly why it was so good to see him enjoy himself in a handsome Irish win last week, of which he was the prime orchestrator. If ever a player deserves some of the good times, it's him.

Not that he hasn't had good days in an Irish jersey before. Yet, despite his haul of 34 caps, the suspicion always lurked that somehow he didn't get a fair crack of the whip. He admits he's had a lot of self-doubts; he probably had more natural footballing ability than any other Irish outhalf of his generation, yet was rarely given a steady run in the team and was usually understudy to Eric Elwood.

The exception was the World Cup year of 1999, when Humphreys started in 10 of 12 Tests. Alas this sequence culminated in the Lens and Twickenham setbacks, and he's been understudy to Ronan O'Gara ever since. Nor, it has to be said, did he cover himself in glory in his three sporadic chances since, away to Argentina, Canada and Romania.

You feel almost guilty for beginning to point out this out when he interrupts you by admitting with typical honesty: "They were terrible. No, it's no secret that in all three of them I played very badly." He agrees that as O'Gara had effectively taken occupancy of the jersey, the pressure was on Humphreys to make the most of these occasional opportunities. "Yeah, I think that probably was the biggest thing. You're going out and trying to force it, and because we had a new team in, with new players in, everybody was a bit nervous. Och, they're excuses. I just went out and played badly in all three, for whatever reason."

Hence, he admits he'd never been so nervous before a match as he was a week ago. "I think because there was so much pressure there after the disappointment of Scotland and getting selected on the basis of the performance the week before. All of a sudden you're thinking: 'if it doesn't go well, uh-oh'."

Ironically, despite his current hot streak, he kicked badly all last week and, after a poor session in the Millennium Stadium the day before the game, he confided to O'Gara that he feared his kicking boots had deserted him. Then, in the pre-match warm-up, he took 25 kicks and missed only one. Cue the match, and nine out of nine.

"I wasn't surprised," says Clive Woodward, who enjoys mind games, but still speaks glowingly of the outhalf he once persuaded to join London Irish. "Wonderful guy, lovely kid, great bloke. He was just a very gifted player. I've always been surprised he hasn't been in the Irish team."

In particular, Woodward recalls a try Humphreys scored against Wakefield direct from a kick-off reception. "He just dummied to kick and then went the length (of the pitch). Nobody touched him. He scored under the posts and I couldn't believe it. I know it was second division, but it was still a pretty good standard."

When Humphreys and Ulster's other prodigal sons returned to the province, by his own admission, Ulster "didn't have a great team. There were eight or nine new faces and a new coach, and we really just set out to try and get ourselves organised, and settle into the professional era".

"It started off slowly and then for whatever reason we won 11 games in a row, and ended up winning the European Cup. It's one of those things which is impossible to explain now when you look back. In subsequent years we had a stronger squad, but yet we didn't even get close to what we achieved that year. That first year back was undoubtedly the highlight of my career so far. Just the way, from an Ulster point of view, it captured the whole public imagination and everybody got behind us."

The week after winning the European Cup victory at Lansdowne Road, Humphreys missed a last-ditch penalty to beat France at the same venue.

There are quite a few theories doing the rounds about Humphreys. One of them is that the emergence of Simon Mason as a goalkicker extraordinaire took some of the pressure off Humphreys' slight shoulders and thus enabled him to play better.

"No, I disagree with that. I think that was entirely wrong in the sense that most of the best games I have played over the past 10 years or so have been when I was place-kicking. I enjoy the responsibility of it. True I was up and down with my kicking, but more so in the past. That's probably one of my biggest regrets from London Irish - the fact that I didn't practice my kicking as much as I do now. I reckon if you ask a lot of the people about that time, missing kicks cost us a number of games. Looking back now at that time, I just shrugged my shoulders and got on with it. If only. You hate to live with regrets, but it's probably the only regret that I have." Humphreys also disagrees with the notion that he's more of a confidence player than most, but accepts that the old 'inconsistent' tag was valid. He's 30 now, a little bit wiser, and with a life outside of rugby.

"You do sort of become more philosophical, like in the past I would have got very down on myself about playing badly, because it was the major part of my life. Don't get me wrong, I still get very disappointed if we lose. or if we play badly. but I've got a daughter now, things like that, and you do develop a different focus."

He says he's fitter than ever, and that he's enjoying it more than ever. He's scored 114 points in his last five outings and says he's never had a streak this hot before. "In scoring terms this is as hot as it gets. Last year in the European Cup I think I kicked something like 56 out of 66 kicks, so in terms of actually kicking percentage-wise I'm doing okay, but I've scored a few tries this season. Whatever I'm doing, I better keep doing it."

He wants to re-establish himself in the Irish team over the next few months and show it's not just a hot streak, that he can do it on a regular basis, for both Ulster and Ireland. He's within 11 caps of Jackie Kyle's landmark for an Irish outhalf, yet, perversely, you wonder should a player of his footballing ability have achieved more by now.

"It is something that has been levelled at me for the past three or four years. I don't look at it that way. I honestly look at my 34 caps as 34 caps more than I thought I would get."

Apart from his first cap, he'd place beating France in Paris as the highlight of his international career - even though, as a sub, he played a cameo role: "Only because it laid to rest the bogey of the previous year."

There have been other highlights such as masterminding the win at Wembley against Wales, but having been through much of the grim '90s "there've been a lot of low times as well".

"That's what's nice about playing in this Irish team, but a lot of my caps were won in previous times when we were playing in an Irish team that was playing with a lot of self-doubt."

And, unlike last Saturday, going backwards. "Having watched the progression of the last 18 months, the confidence that has crept in there, that's what makes this team click. It would have been very, very bad to see that lost because of one performance against Scotland. Every team has a bad day, and I thought it was very, very harsh the way a lot of people went overboard about the Irish team returning to the bad old days, which just blatantly wasn't going to be the case." For Humphreys too, those bad old days are over.