Ian Humphreys (born 24 April 1982 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a retired Irish

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

footballer, who played at

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

for the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

team

Ulster Rugby Ulster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial rugby teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the IRFU Ulster Branch, which is one of ...

and English sides Leicester Tigers and

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

. He joined Ulster in 2008 from Leicester Tigers having previously played for Ulster at under 21 level where he captained them during the 2002/03 season and has also represented Ireland at U19, U21 and 'A' level, and captained the Irish side at the

Rugby World Cup Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) is the quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it currently consists of men's and women's tournaments, and is the highest level of competition in the sport ...

tournament in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in March 2005. He had previously been named player of the tournament for the European Sevens qualifier in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. He is the younger brother of retired Ulster fly-half David Humphreys. Humphreys joined Leicester Tigers in 2005 from

Belfast Harlequins Belfast Harlequins is a multi-sports club located off the Malone Road in south Belfast, Northern Ireland. The club name provides the overall umbrella for rugby union, men's and ladies' hockey, and squash. The club is associated on and off the f ...

. His first outing in Tigers stripes was at the

Middlesex Sevens The Middlesex Sevens was a Rugby Sevens tournament held annually at Twickenham stadium in London, England until 2011. It was first held in 1926, and started by Dr J.A. Russell-Cargill, a London-based Scot.Bath, ''Scotland Rugby Miscellany'', p82 Th ...

Tournament at Twickenham in August. During October 2006 Humphreys was loaned out to first division

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

where he made 4 appearances, scoring 2 tries and a drop goal. On his return to the Leicester first team he guided the Tigers to a victory away at

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...

with a mature display. After more assured performances, and a hamstring injury to Andy Goode, Humphreys was selected to play Munster at

Thomond Park Thomond Park is a stadium in Limerick in the Irish province of Munster. The stadium is owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union and has Munster Rugby, Shannon RFC and UL Bohemian RFC as tenants. Limerick FC played home games in Thomond Park fr ...

in a decisive Heineken Cup pool game. After his brilliant performance in a high tempo match he was the selected for his Ireland A début against

England Saxons England A is England's men's second national rugby union team. The team has previously been known by a number of names, such as England B, Emerging England and, most recently, England Saxons. England A play a key role in the development of emer ...

at Ravenhill, in his native

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

. In April 2008, after falling out of favour at Leicester, Humphreys signed for Ulster to replace his retiring brother. He joined

in 2012 scoring 198 points in 33 games. He rejoined Ulster at the start of the 2014/15 season but retired at the end of the 2015/16 season.

References

External links

Leicester profileGuinness Premiership profileUlster profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Humphreys, Ian 1982 births Living people Rugby union fly-halves Irish rugby union players Ulster Rugby players Leicester Tigers players Leeds Tykes players Ireland international rugby sevens players Ireland Wolfhounds international rugby union players