EVEN THOUGH IT has almost been a year since David Humphreys was appointed Director of Rugby at Gloucester, it’s still strange to see him working out of a coaching box in England’s West Country rather than at Ravenhill.
Humphreys is one of Ulster’s most iconic heroes, having won Heineken Cup and Celtic League medals during a ten-year career with the club before working behind the scenes for a further six seasons.
Humphreys initially joined Ulster’s backroom team as the Director of Operations but was the club’s Director of Rugby by the end of his tenure, a position he know holds with Gloucester in the Aviva Premiership.
The former out-half’s decisions to swap clubs was a big surprise last summer, especially because he was leaving a team stocked with young talent who seemed poised to make an imminent breakthrough.
Humphreys says that leaving Ulster wasn’t something that he had been planning, but once a chance came up, it made him evaluate what he was doing.
“We had been pretty successful at Ulster over the last few years considering where we were when I started and this job came up on short notice,” Humphreys told The42.
“I felt it was the right time to make the move. It was very difficult to leave. I hadn’t thought about leaving at all until this opportunity came up because we had been on an upward curve at Ulster. I took a few days and chatted with the owners and my wife and decided to make the move. Opportunities don’t always come along when you expect and I thought it was time to move on.”
Both Ulster and Gloucester have struggled at times since the move. The Belfast-based province failed to make it out of their Champions Cup pool for the first time since 2010 while Gloucester currently sit ninth in the Aviva Premiership.
But the Cherry and Whites host Connacht in the Challenge Cup quarter-final tomorrow night and winning Europe’s second-tier tournament could provide a route into next season’s marquee competition.
Gloucester have some very talented players in their squad, especially in the backline where they can pick Greig Laidlaw, James Hook, Billy Twelvetrees and Jonny May.
And Humphrey’s thinks that while the results haven’t been as good as he had hoped, building blocks have been put in place by head coach Laurie Fisher ahead of next season.
“I’m not sure what expectations I had coming over really,” Humphreys said.
“It has been really hard to judge apart from the results – and from that point of view things have probably been a little disappointing. But internally, we feel that if you dig a little deeper, we have definitely improved. Some of the performances have been very good and the recruitment we have done ahead of next season will make us better. It is very hard to deliver instant results.”
Recruitment is a big part of Humphreys’ job and he appears to be a shrewd judge of talent for the most part. Ulster’s South African trio of Johann Muller, Pedrie Wannenburg and Ruan Pienaar were all great additions to the side while Jared Payne has gone on to be an Irish international.
Humphreys is right to be optimistic about next season’s new signings as two have performed consistently in Super Rugby. Jeremy Thrush has been capped 11 times for the All Blacks in the second row while fullback Tom Marshall is one of the league’s more underrated attacking threats.
But besides getting out the checkbook, there are other aspects to working inside the framework of the Aviva Premiership that are different to what Humphreys experienced in the Pro12.
“Well the big thing is that Gloucester is owned – when you are at Ulster you are working under the IRFU who have a say in what you can do,” Humphreys said. “That doesn’t make things more difficult or easier. It is a huge strength for the national team and it is why Ireland have been so successful recently.”
In a few years time, Humphreys will have been in the coaches box longer than he was a professional rugby player and you experience the highs and lows of the game completely differently in the two roles. When he was a player, it was crucial that he get his own job right on matchday. But as a Director of Rugby, the most important thing is that he gets everybody else at the club firing.
That challenge is something he enjoys.
“I’m responsible for 90 people here,” Humphreys says, after a long pause, when asked what element of the Director of Rugby role he likes the most.
“Every day is different and presents new challenges. One thing is that it might be easier to build a team to do well for 2-3 years, but we want to get more guys coming through the academy. There are a lot of people playing rugby in this region and we want them coming through our academy and playing for Gloucester.”
Humphreys commends tomorrow’s opponent for the way they have integrated underage talent into their first team and thinks Connacht’s coaching staff have done a good job at building a squad. The quarter-final clash at Kingsholm is a big game for Gloucester as Champions Cup qualification would give them another financial boost as they look to keep up with the rest of the Premiership.
Humphreys knows that winning a trophy in his first season would be a big launchpad from which to execute his vision for next year.
“I have always maintained that on-pitch success drives everything,” Humphreys said.
“The better you do on the pitch, the more people will come and watch you. The more people who come and watch you, the more sponsors you can attract. The more sponsors you can attract, the more money you have for recruitment, facilities and the academy.
“This league is so tough that you need to build a squad that can sustain a challenge for the entire season.”
Something went wrong behind the scenes in Ulster Rugby in my opinion.
They’d contested 2 finals in 2 seasons, they’d qualified for the knockouts in Europe 4 seasons in a row, they had Humphreys as director & the perfect coach in Anscombe, they were seriously going places & it all seemed to fall apart out of nowhere & they’re struggling to keep up now.
It seems to me they screwed it up a bit.
Hope things go well for them before the season ends, their fans deserve something for their loyalty even if the club arguably, does not.
It was all left in the hands of Shane Logan who has been buying time with the appointment of Bryn Cunningham until a new Director of Rugby starts. Ulster rugby will struggle to fulfill its potential while it alienates the greater population by continually under investing in community schools and youth rugby.
I agree, seems to me the CEO Shane Logan became too involved and made it difficult for Ulster to do their jobs. He seems very obsessed with money for example the multi million ££ stadium deal. If you ask me he seems to have had a clash with humphreys over anscombe and it resulted in david leaving. Just a theory though but im putting it out there. Logan wanted anscombe gone coz of no trophies?? Even gareth anscombe said the higher-ups in ulster f***ed up
Excellent point. On the back of Ireland winning the Women’s 6 nations what does Ulster Rugby do? Apparently they have decided to dispense with most of their ladies rugby development officers. The lack of discipline running through the Ulster team where they are now almost averaging a citing a game also suggests that there is a massive problem within the squad.
Ulster are almost certainly going to make the Pro12 play-offs, with a very decent shot of a home semi-final (and final); they’re producing an abundance of Irish talent; selling out their fully-owned stadium for most games; have one of the best training facilities in world rugby; have the ability to attract world-class foreign talent (Piutau, Pienaar); and have an outstanding incoming coach in Les Kiss… apart from that, Shane Logan has overseen a complete shambles at Ulster Rugby.
(I’m not Shane Logan by the way – just a fan who has seen Ulster Rugby actually been run shambolically in years gone by). I’m much more comfortable with how Ulster are being run than any of the other Provinces.
How many times have Ulster made semi finals in the past ten years? Where is the silverware? It could be argued that the stadium should have been made bigger. Selling it out, should be easier than it appears due to the fact the only other professional sport in a region of nearly 2 million people is ice hockey. Would Leinster or any other ambitious Premiership club have been willing to wait the length of time Ulster fans have had to for a Director of Rugby to show up? The vision of Ulster rugby that Humphrey’s expressed will never be realised without world class management. While Ulster may have been run shambolically in the past would Humphrey’s have left if Ulster had World Class Management now?
There’s no silverware, but we’re competing for silverware on a regular basis now, as opposed to never escaping our European pool to doing it regularly over the last 5 years.
Most Ulster fans are happy to wait on Les Kiss. I’d much rather wait for the right person than appoint someone inferior who will cause a longer term regression.
I’m not sure what you mean about Humphreys leaving due to a lack of world-class management. I think he simply fancied a change and a significant pay rise.
Les Kiss is not Joe Schmidt and does not possess a magic wand despite the fans expectations, it could be a few seasons before Ulster realise his potential if at all. Bearing in mind Humphrey’s success in terms of trophies. Think Humphrey’s left Ulster to go to an environment where the resources matched his ambition. To my knowledge none of the Ulster management have any experience or knowledge in management of professional rugby clubs prior to their appointments. World Class management starts with staff who have achieved success at other professional clubs.
Mercifully most Ulster fans aren’t quite do ‘glass-half-empty’ as that!
Humphreys was responsible for appointing the coaching staff. So the argument that he left because the coaching staff weren’t good enough makes no sense.
As for the stadium size – I think it’s big enough. It usually sells out with a day to spare. Also it was subject to planning permission in a residential area and NI Planning law is much more rigorously applied and less prone to cronyism than you might experience elsewhere.
While most fans are prepared to accept perennial underachievement as success while using the Pro 12 clubs as a measure then Ulster rugby will remain nothing more than a nostalgic extension of the schools cup.
Humphrey’s did not appoint Shane Logan and did he leave because the management at Gloucester offered him more resources without the restriction of quotas?
Northern Ireland institutions especially the appointments at Ulster rugby are the best example of cronyism that anyone could hope to see.
Given the changes to Irish Qualified signings and the limitations that brings would have been interested to know what Humphrey’s thinks of Ulster signing an All Black.
“Lucky buggers” most likely!
Ulster regularly field a backline exclusively of young Irish players (when Gilroy plays 15 instead of Ludik). Adding an All Black to the outside backs looks like a good use of an NIQ spot.
He doesn’t arrive till July 2016, so Ludik and Williams may have moved on by then.