James Hume (born 7 September 1998) is an 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 its m ...

player who plays

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

for

United Rugby Championship 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 ...

and

European Rugby Champions Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

side

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 King ...

. Born in Belfast, Hume attended

Royal Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...

and was a key part of the team that won three

Ulster Schools' Cup The Ulster Schools' Challenge Cup is an annual competition involving schools affiliated to the Ulster Rugby, Ulster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. The Schools' Cup has the distinction of being the world's second-oldest rugby competitio ...

s in a row between 2015 and 2017. After leaving school, he joined the Ulster academy ahead of the 2017–18 season, while playing club rugby for

Banbridge Banbridge ( , ) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the River Bann and the A1 road (Northern Ireland), A1 road and is named after a bridge built over the River Bann in 1712. It is situated in the Civil parishes in Ireland, c ...

. He made his debut for Ireland under-20s in their 41–38 defeat at the hands of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

during the

2018 Six Nations Under 20s Championship The 2018 Six Nations Under 20s Championship, was the 11th series of the Six Nations Under 20s Championship, the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship. England were the defending champions. Participants Table Fixtures Round 1 ...

on 23 February 2018. He also represented the under-20s at the

2018 World Rugby Under 20 Championship The 2018 World Rugby Under 20 Championship was the eleventh annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. The event was organised in France by rugby's governing body, World Rugby. Twelve nations played in the tournamen ...

. He made his senior debut for Ulster on 29 September 2018, featuring off the bench in the province;s 64–7 defeat at the hands of

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...

. He made 11 appearances, including 5 starts, in 2018–19. He signed his first senior contract with Ulster in February 2019, to join the senior squad ahead of the 2019–20 season. That season, he made ten appearances, including nine starts, and scored two tries. In

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

he established himself as Ulster's first choice outside centre, making 20 appearances including 19 starts, 132 tackles, and 155 carries with 43 defenders beaten, and was named Young Player of the Year in the Ulster Rugby Awards."Henderson Leads The Winners At Ulster Rugby Awards"
IrishRugby.ie, 7 June 2021 He made his senior debut for Ireland in a 71–10 victory over the United States on 10 July 2021. In 2021–22 he made 18 appearances, all starts, scoring four tries, was named in the

2021–22 United Rugby Championship The 2021–22 United Rugby Championship was the twenty-first season of the professional rugby union competition originally known as the Celtic League. It was the first season that the competition is referred to as the United Rugby Championship, ...

Dream Team, and was awarded Ulster's Men's Player of the Year and Rugby Writers' Player of the Year awards. He was called up to the Ireland squad for their 2022 tour of New Zealand.Gerry Thornley
"Ireland name their 40-man squad for tour of New Zealand"
''The Irish Times'', 14 June 2022

References

External links

Ulster Rugby profileUnited Rugby Championship profile
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Ireland profileBanbridge RFC Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hume, James 1998 births Living people Rugby union players from Belfast People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution Irish rugby union players Ulster Rugby players Rugby union centres Rugby union wings Ireland international rugby union players