David Humphreys (rugby union)
Birth name | David Humphreys | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Date of birth | 10 September 1971 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Belfast, Northern Ireland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 83 kg (13.1 st; 183 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School | Ballymena Academy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
University | Queen's University Belfast, University of Oxford | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notable relative(s) | Ian Humphreys (brother) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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David Humphreys
Playing career
Early career
Humphreys started playing rugby while at Ballymena Academy,[1]: p. 17 and represented Ireland Schools, captaining them to the Triple Crown in 1990.[2] In the amateur era, he played for Queen's University RFC, with whom he won the Dudley Cup in 1994,[3] Ballymena R.F.C.,[4] and Oxford University RFC, for whom he scored all 19 points in a losing effort in the 1995 Varsity Match.[5] He also played provincial representative rugby for Ulster, making his senior debut in an away victory over Cumbria in 1992,[6] and his Interprovincial debut against Munster the same year,[7][8] and was selected for Ireland under-21, 'A' and development teams.[9][10]
London Irish
After rugby union was declared open to professionalism in 1995, Humphreys was approached by
Ulster
Humphreys continued to be selected for Ulster while at London Irish, starring in a win against New South Wales in February 1996, in which he scored 17 points - a try, three conversions, a drop goal and a penalty.[18] He appeared for Ulster in the 1996–97 Heineken Cup, defying London Irish to do so,[19] but was unavailable for the province the following season, after the English clubs declared that they no longer considered the Irish provinces to be representative sides.[1]: p. 20 Warren Gatland, the new Ireland coach, led a drive by the IRFU to bring Irish players who had signed contracts with English clubs back to Ireland for the 1998–99 season, Humphreys being one of them.[1]: 16–22 He joined Dungannon RFC, making him available for selection for Ulster,[20] and agreed a contract with the IRFU.[21] After Mark McCall sustained a serious neck injury, Humphreys was named Ulster's captain, and led them to win the 1998–99 Heineken Cup.[22]
He won the
He won Ulster's player of the year and supporters' club player of the year awards in 2002,[29] and the team's personality of the year award in 1999,[30] 2000[31] and 2008.[32] He won a supporters' poll for Ulster's all-time favourite player in 2008.[33] He retired in 2008 as Ulster's most capped player with 163 appearances,[34] having scored 27 tries, 179 conversions, 326 penalties and 38 drop goals, 1,585 points in all.[35] At the time of his retirement he was the Celtic League's top scorer with 786 points, and the Heineken Cup's fourth top scorer[33] with 583 points.[36]
International career
Humphreys made his senior debut for Ireland against France in the 1996 Five Nations Championship.[37] For several years he vied with Munster's Ronan O'Gara for the out-half position on the Ireland team, with O'Gara ultimately making the position his own.[38] Nevertheless, Humphreys won 72 caps for Ireland, captaining the side five times. He retired from the international game in 2006 as Ireland's most-capped out-half[25] and second highest points scorer, having scored six tries, 110 penalties, 88 conversions and eight drop-goals, 560 points in all.[35] He also represented Ireland at the 1997 Rugby World Cup Sevens,[39] and played six times for the Barbarians between 2003 and 2005, once as captain, and scored 33 points.[40]
Post-playing career
On retiring as a player, he was appointed to the new role of Operations Director of Ulster, with responsibility for contract negotiations.[34] The following season, he became the team's Director of Rugby, overseeing the senior team, the 'A' team, the under-20s and the academy.[41] His role included player recruitment, and he is credited with signing South African stars Ruan Pienaar, Johann Muller and John Afoa, [42] and persuading Tommy Bowe and Roger Wilson to return to Ulster.[43] In 2014 he became Director of Rugby at Gloucester.[44] He left this role at the end of the 2019–20 season.[45] He had a high performance consulting role with Georgia at the 2020 Autumn Nations Cup.[46] In 2021 he launched a sports recruitment company, SportsWork.[47] He was also in involved in cricket in Ireland and England, serving on the high performance committee of Cricket Ireland[48] before becoming director of cricket operations for the England and Wales Cricket Board in February 2023.[49] In November 2023 it was announced that he would join the Irish Rugby Football Union as Performance Director Designate in March 2024, before succeeding David Nucifora as Performance Director in June.[50]
Personal life
His sister Karen is a former international hockey player,[51] and his younger brother Ian was a professional rugby player, who played out-half for Leicester Tigers, London Irish and Ulster. His son James is an Ireland under-20 international, and joined the Ulster Rugby academy in 2021.[52]
He studied law at Queen's University Belfast,[53] He trained as a solicitor with Belfast law firm Tughans, under former Ulster and Ireland rugby international Mike Gibson.
He received an Honorary Doctorate from the
References
- ^ a b c d e Jonathan Bradley, The Last Amateurs: The Incredible Story of Ulster Rugby's 1999 European Champions, The Blackstaff Press, 2018
- ^ Kieran Rooney, "Magnificent Irish heroes capture Triple Crown", Irish Independent, 19 April 1990
- ^ Gareth Fullerton, "David Humphreys insists Irish club rugby needs to survive and thrive", Belfast Live, 26 September 2020
- ^ Kieran Rooney, "Simon's false alarm", Irish Independent, 17 May 1994
- ^ John Mason, "Humphreys left singing blues after heroic display", Irish Independent, 13 December 1995
- ^ "Cumbria caught Red-handed". Irish Independent, 8 September 1992
- ^ Jim Stokes, "Hero Humphreys", Ireland's Saturday Night, 28 November 1992
- ^ Kieran Rooney, "Missed penalties are only worry for victorious Irish", Irish Independent, 26 July 1993
- ^ Mark Jones, "Humphreys hits heights", Sunday Life, 25 July 1993
- ^ Nuala Haughey, "Power and the Glory", Ireland's Saturday Night, 23 October 1993
- ^ "Courage Clubs Championship 1995/", Moseley Rugby Club, archived 16 March 2015
- ^ Jim Stokes, "Campese rarin' to go", Belfast Telegraph, 27 January 1996
- ^ Brendan Fanning, "Anderson wins round one for troubled 'Irish", Sunday Independent, 27 April 1997
- ^ "Despairing Coventry plan swift retribution", The Birmingham Post, 12 May 1997
- ^ Micheal McGeary, "Humph's up and under", Sunday Life, 18 May 1997
- ^ Peter O'Reilly, "Best lays plans for survival of the fittest", The Sunday Tribune, 17 May 1998
- ^ "Class tells for Irish", The Birmingham Post, 25 May 1998
- ^ Kieran Rooney, "Humphreys stakes claim", Irish Independent, 7 February 1996
- ^ Bill Leith, "Rugby Union: Topping grabs spoils", The Independent, 13 October 1996
- ^ Jim Stokes, "Humphreys set for Dungannon", Belfast Telegraph, 1 June 1998
- ^ Jim Stokes, "Dungannon to welcome home exiles", Belfast Telegraph, 26 May 1998
- ^ Bruce McKendry, Champions: The Players' Story, IRFU (Ulster Branch), 1999, pp. 8-21
- ^ Micheal McGeary, "Willie's boys get job Dun", Sunday Life, 27 May 2001
- ^ Statzone, Pro12 Rugby, retrieved 2 June 2022
- ^ a b "David Humphreys: Most capped Irish outhalf and European cup winner" Archived 21 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Culture Northern Ireland, 10 April 2006, archived 8 April 2015
- ^ "Ulster hold on for victory", BBC Sport, 20 December 2003
- ^ Brendan Fanning, "Humphreys king of Celtic warriors", Sunday Independent, 21 December 2003
- ^ "Humphreys lands title for Ulster". telegraph.co.uk. 27 May 2006. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
- ^ "Humphreys doubles up", BBC Sport, 24 May 2002
- ^ Jim Stokes, "Ulster toasts master Mason", Belfast Telegraph, 28 May 1999
- ^ Jim Stokes, "Humphreys is 'Mr Personality'", Belfast Telegraph, 19 May 2000
- ^ Richard Mulligan, "Humphreys steals the limelight while Monaghan boy Bowe bows out in style", News Letter, 16 May 2008
- ^ a b Richard Mulligan, "Fans poll punts 'Humph' heads above the rest", News Letter, 7 May 2008
- ^ a b Richard Mulligan, "New Role in Ulster for Humphreys", News Letter, 5 June 2008
- ^ a b Gavin Mairs, "Thanks for the memories David", Belfast Telegraph, 9 May 2008
- ^ David Humphreys at European Professional Club Rugby
- ^ John O'Shea, "English: 'Open' and shut case", Evening Herald, 20 February 1996
- ^ "Ronan O'Gara, David Humphreys and the battle for 'Number 10'", Off The Ball, 30 March 2020
- ^ "Irish bowled over by Japan", Irish Independent, 24 March 1997
- ^ "Player Archive: D. G. Humphreys", Barbarian F. C., retrieved 18 July 2022
- ^ "McLaughlin Confirmed As New Ulster Coach", Irish Rugby, 23 June 2009
- ^ "David Humphreys becomes Gloucester director of rugby", BBC Sport, 7 June 2014
- ^ "When is a ‘Head Coach’ not a Head Coach?", The Front Row Union, 24 August 2012
- ^ "David Humphreys leaves Ulster for Director of Rugby position at Gloucester". The Score. 7 June 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
- ^ "David Humphreys to leave Gloucester Rugby". Gloucester Rugby. 2 June 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
- ^ "David Humphreys and Neil Doak secure Georgia coaching roles", BBC Sport, 11 October 2020
- ^ David Elliott, "Former Ulster and Ireland rugby star Humphreys launches sports recruitment company", Business Live, 19 November 2021
- ^ "David Humphreys set to succeed Nucifora as IRFU's high performance director". Irish Times. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
- ^ "Former Ulster fly-half David Humphreys to take up director of cricket role at ECB: reports". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
- ^ "IRFU Announce David Humphreys As New Performance Director", Irish Rugby, 1 November 2023
- ^ Richard Bullick, "The whole nine years", News Letter, 31 January 2008
- ^ Darren Fullerton, "Ulster Academy: James Humphreys - son of former Ireland No10 David - added to squad for 2021/22 season", Belfast Live, 12 August 2021
- ^ Gareth Fullerton, "Rugby hero David Humphreys letting son James carve out own career", Belfast Live, 25 September 2020
- ^ "Canavan, Humphreys awarded honorary degrees", The Irish Times, 30 October 2003
- ^ "Wizard Humphreys now an MBE", BBC Sport, 30 December 2003
- ^ "Humphreys set to join IRUPA Hall of Fame", ESPN, 1r April 2008
External links
- David Humphreys at ESPNscrum
- Ulster profile, archived 26 February 2008