Humphreys left chasing Kyle’s record

DAVID HUMPHREYS will not break Jackie Kyle’s Irish record of 46 appearances at stand off when he lines out at No 10 against Fiji at Lansdowne Road on Sunday.

One of Humphreys’ appearances for Ireland as a substitute for Ciaran Clarke at Twickenham in 1998 was at full back and Irish statisticians were busy investigating the possibility that he might also have won another of his caps in a different position.

In any event, some 17 of Humphreys’ appearances were made as a reserve and these are documented in all rugby record books, including the official IRFU programmes.

Humphreys will, of course, in years to come, have his name highlighted as Ireland’s most capped out half but may never reach the amount of game time achieved by Kyle in his 46 appearances for his country.

The Dungannon player does, however, have an opportunity to strengthen his position at the top of Ireland’s scoring records on Sunday after being named in the team by coach Eddie O’Sullivan yesterday.

Humphreys has scored 326 points for the country and will surely add to that against Fiji.

It had been speculated that Humphreys might have captained the side but when O’Driscoll was forced back into service, O’Sullivan had little choice but to name the Blackrock and Leinster player as captain for the second week in succession.

Ireland make nine changes from last week with Geordan Murphy coming in for Girvan Dempsey, Justin Bishop returning for Denis Hickie/John Kelly, Humphreys for O’Gara, Guy Easterby for Peter Stringer, Marcus Horan for Reggie Corrigan, Frank Sheahan for Shane Byrne, Leo Cullen for Gary Longwell, Alan Quinlan for Victor Costello and Kieron Dawson for Keith Gleeson.

But that does give coach O’Sullivan an opportunity to experiment and build confidence in the squad as a whole without totally diminishing the potency of the Irish threat.

In that sense, he knows that Murphy, dogged with injury, offers an alternative to Girvan Dempsey and that Bishop is straining at the leash to get another chance on the Irish wing.

O’Sullivan admitted that some players might feel under pressure, particularly those on the fringe. “Some of them don’t get much opportunity so this will be a big day for them. Hopefully they will manage to put a bit of pressure on us, the selectors, and make us work harder to come to decisions. That, to me, is the ideal situation.”

IRELAND V. FIJI: G Murphy (Leicester), S Horgan (Lansdowne), B O’Driscoll (Blackrock, capt), K Maggs (Bath), J Bishop (London Irish), D Humphreys (Dungannon), G Easterby (Llanelli); M Horan (Shannon), F Sheahan (Cork Constitution), J Hayes (Shannon), L Cullen (Blackrock), M O’Kelly (St Mary’s), A Quinlan (Shannon), K Dawson (London Irish), A Foley (Shannon). Replacements: S Byrne (Blackrock College), R Corrigan (Greystones), M O’Driscoll (Cork Consitution), E Miller (Terenure), P Stringer (Shannon), R O’Gara (Cork Constitution), G D’Arcy (Lansdowne)

Replacements: S Byrne (Blackrock College), R Corrigan (Greystones), M O’Driscoll (Cork Consitution), E Miller (Terenure), P Stringer (Shannon), R O’Gara (Cork Con, G D’Arcy (Lansdowne)

IRISH DEVELOPMENT XV: B Cunningham (Dungannon), T Robinson (Buccaneers), G Duffy (Galwegians), D Quinlan (Blackrock), M Lawler (Shannon), M McHugh (St Mary’s), B O’Riordan (UCD); S Best (Belfast Harlequins), P Shields (Ballymena, capt), P Bracken (Galwegians), D O’Callaghan ( Cork Constitution), A Kearney (Dungannon), A McCullen (Lansdowne), J O’ Connor (Galwegians), D Dillon (UCD).

Replacements: J Flannery (Galwegians), R McCormack (Buccaneers), D Browne (Galwegians), N McMillan (Ballymena), K Campbell (Dungannon), S Moore (UCD), S Young (Ballymena).