Humphreys recovers to lead Ulster against Munster

ULSTER keyman David Humphreys has recovered from the injury that kept him out of the side's Heineken Cup game against Biarritz on December 14 and will lead the province against Munster in the Celtic League semi-final at Thomond Park on Friday night, kick-off 7. 35.

The game has aroused tremendous interest in Ulster, not least because their hopes of progressing to the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup took a bit of a hammering with that unfortunate away defeat by Biarritz. Failure to win on Friday could see their season come to an unwelcome and premature halt. They expect to have considerable vocal support at Thomond Park, a venue with which a surprisingly small number of their players are familiar. Munster have tended to play their home matches against Ulster at Musgrave Park with the result that only older stagers like Humphreys and Gary Longwell have experienced the unique atmosphere associated with the Limerick ground. The Munster Branch revealed last night that the match is likely to be a sell-out with only a few terrace tickets still available at Thomond Park.

The captaincy of the Ulster team passes to Humphreys because of a heel injury to Andy Ward that has kept him relatively inactive for the past couple of weeks. But the return of Humphreys to the number 10 jersey is sure to be a huge morale booster for Ulster who are never quite the same without their vastly experienced 31 year-old number 10. Humphreys overtook the legendary Jack Kyle as Ireland's most capped out-half during the autumn international series and is set to continue as Ronan O'Gara's most serious rival for the Ireland out-half position for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, Eddie O'Sullivan and the rest of the Irish management will be keeping a very close eye on the head-to-head between the pair on Friday.