Out of the shadows into the spotlight

In FocusKeith Duggan talks to outhalf David Humphreys about his triumphant return to the number 10 jersey

Wind back the clock until it is just before three. David Humphreys, he is sitting in the Irish dressing-room in Murrayfield and with the bagpipes droning on the field above and the studs beating on the floor, and the tension, the old tension, it is all so familiar. And yet so different.

Ulster's godsend, with so many splendid days behind him and still something to prove. Thirty-one years of age and coming in, well, not quite from the cold, but from a long autumn in the shadows. From playing cheerleader to Ronan O'Gara, his friend and his sole competitor. Propelled into the spotlight in this of all grounds. Murrayfield. Where Irish legends are welcomed with musical salutes and sent home in boxes.

"I just said to myself that this could be my last time playing here," he remembers much later on. "And I was determined to enjoy it. You know this was an unexpected opportunity that I was given and I wanted to make the most of it. And one of the keys to performing well is being as relaxed as you possibly can under the circumstances."

A good start, Eddie had said. Calmness. Settle. Establish a tempo. So then the kick-off "and the ball gets blocked and smacks off my chest and hits the crossbar" he laughs. "Yeah, its the sort of start you absolutely dread. Thankfully we rode our luck a little bit there and got the ball back. But I believe that even if the Scots had scored early on we have the kind of team now that could recover and comeback to win the game."

After that frantic opening, Humphreys ascended into that Zen-like state during which he seems incapable of taking anything other than the perfect decision. On days like this, Humphreys is the still point of an ever-turning world. Twenty-six points, a dive across the try-line and a masterful kicking game.

"Well, the try, you know, I didn't have much to do. I think Brian gave it to Kevin and he busted through and then Denis did all the hard work. I was there for the five-yard run-in; but it was a nice feeling, you enjoy them all."

Asked to single out the defining period, he arrived at the long and frustrated Scots siege early in the second half. At one stage, he leaped for a ball with Simon Taylor and got his finger tips to a pass that seemed destined to leave the big flanker with a stroll to the line.

"Yeah, I probably should have caught it. I just remember barely touching it. But games turn on small things. They had all that pressure and eventually they opted for a penalty. That can be very telling psychologically."

FOR Humphreys the mind games behind this day were simple. His dilemma was clear-cut. For months he could but watch as O'Gara took flawless step after flawless step. The gentleman in Humphreys would have rued the cruelty of the Cork man's recent injury. But his sportsman's heart will have begun to race. In a way, he reckons this latest glittering show was a tribute to his alter ego.

"I think that Ronan had raised the level of performance in the way he had played over the last eight or nine games. I had to try and match that and it did add to the pressure of coming in, yeah."

Their rivalry for role of general to the Irish team has been fascinating, much more blurred than the old Campbell/Ward tussle and never less than full of mutual respect.

"Obviously, we both want to play," he admits. "But we have been together in this squad for a long time and we are aware that it's really pulling together. So when you aren't playing you want the team that is out there on the field to win. That's the way it is between Ronan and myself. But it doesn't take away the edge in terms of wanting play."

It leaves Eddie O'Sullivan with a handsome dilemma. "Well we aren't going to have a selection meeting here," grins the Irish coach, as he pondered his first win on Scottish soil. "I said I would have no reservations about David stepping in because he has played superbly for Ireland. He is a consummate professional and he has been in big situations before and come through with flying colours. So I think we have a great luxury in Irish rugby at the moment with two outhalves."

For the first time, the debate seems to be inconclusive. How to tell which man has the richer vein of form right now?