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David Humphreys was also a soldier in the Revolutionary War and aide to George Washington and
David Humphrey is an actor and comedian.''
'David Humphreys'
MBE (born
10 September 1971 in
Belfast,
Northern Ireland) is an
Irish rugby union footballer who plays
fly-half for
Ulster. He won 72 caps for Ireland.
Humphreys was educated at
Ballymena Academy, the
Queen's University of Belfast and
Oxford University. Humphreys has represented Ireland at A, U21 and schools levels and has also been capped for the Barbarians. He led the Ireland Schools' side to the Triple Crown back in 1992 when he was at
Ballymena Academy. He broke into the Ulster senior squad a year later helping them to victory over Cumbria at Cockermouth. Humphreys was a law student at
Queen's University of Belfast at the time. When he graduated, he moved to
Oxford University. At the
1995 Varsity Match Humphreys scored all
Oxford's points (a try, conversion, drop goal and three penalties) in their defeat by
Cambridge 21-19.
Humphreys duly qualified as a
solicitor and came under the tutelage of a Belfast practice whose senior partner happened to be
Mike Gibson, one of Ireland's greatest-ever players. Humphreys converted from the amateur game to the professional ranks with London Irish whose coaches included Willie Anderson and
Clive Woodward.
Humphreys made his
Ireland debut against
France on
17 February 1996, and went on to win over 70 caps, making him Ireland's most capped fly-half.
He returned to Ulster with the advent of professionalism in the province at the beginning of the 1998-99 season and captained Ulster to
European Cup glory in 1999.
At the height of his powers Humphreys was a formidable outside half with excellent positional kicking from the hand, accurate and consistent goal kicking plus devastating acceleration from a standing start which regularly set up try-scoring moves in the three-quarter line. In addition, his drop goal was a vital part of Ulster and Ireland's armoury in the late stages of close games.
Later in his career, he suffered from inconsistent form and competed with
Munster's Ronan O'Gara for a place in the Ireland team. In the 2003-4 season he lost his Ireland place in the side, but with Ronan O'Gara on Lions duty, he played in both of the summer 2005 Tests against Japan - captaining the side twice. He came on as a substitute against New Zealand in November 2005, and did the same against Australia the following week. Humphreys captained Ireland for the fifth time in the November 2005 win against Romania.
David Humphreys announced his retirement from international rugby after being an unused replacement throughout the 2006 Six Nations campaign. Humphreys agreed a one-year deal to continue playing with Ulster and remains the first-choice fly-half for Ulster.
Humphreys cemented a reputation for last-ditch heroics in the final match of the 2005-6 season. Ulster had gone into the final week of competition narrowly leading the
Celtic League, but a decisive win for Leinster away to
Edinburgh concluded during the final minutes of Ulster's final match, against the
Ospreys in
South Wales. With Ulster two points behind with just four minutes to go and the Ospreys dominating territorially, it looked like the cup would go to Dublin. Humphreys, however, kicked a last minute 40 metre drop goal to clinch the game and the league for Ulster.
He received an honorary doctorate from the
University of Ulster in
2003 for Services to Sport and an MBE in the Queens New Year’s Honours List in January 2004.
His younger brother
Ian Humphreys is also a promising fly-half.
External links
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Statistics from Planet Rugby
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Sporting heroes 1
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Sporting heroes 2
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Humphries retires from game