JAMES HUME HAS WON so many player of the match awards this season that his house must stink of champagne.

The latest prize arrived home last Friday, following the centre’s outstanding performance in Ulster’s victory over Munster, where he scored one try, and had a key role in three others.

Barring injury, he’ll be on the plane to New Zealand with the Irish squad later this month where roles in Ireland’s two midweek games against the New Zealand Maoris are guaranteed.

The next step is breaking into the Test team on that tour but with established internationals Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw ahead in the queue, that’s more of a leap than a step.

Even so, there is a growing belief this is Irish rugby’s coming man after a season when he reserved his best performances for the crunch Irish derbies against Leinster and Munster. Last Friday, his coach, Dan McFarland, described his defensive work as world class and those qualities will be examined by the highly-regarded Stormers attack in today’s United Rugby Championship (URC) semi-final.

Whoever wins can dare to dream. Leinster, who had been the overwhelming favourites to win the inaugural URC, are out of the running, defeated last night by the Bulls. Today’s victors will host next Saturday’s decider. Only two teams, Munster and Toulouse, have beaten Ulster in Belfast this year.

James Hume has excelled this season Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO

There is a context to all this. As a club, Ulster have been waiting a long time for success, 16 years having passed since they last won a trophy. Previous Ulster teams have come close but there was always a hint of brittleness about them.

This side seem a bit different. They’re younger for a start, Hume just 23, surrounded by backs who have even less experience, Stewart Moore, Ethan McIlroy, Nathan Doak. Robert Baloucoune, who plays outside him, is just a year older.

“I work with these guys every day and it’s their appetite to get better every day,” said Billy Burns, the Ulster out-half, recently. “They’re humble lads, they’re playing some unbelievable rugby, but they’re still grounded and willing to work hard.

“There’s a fearlessness about a lot of them too. They are not scared by any occasion.”

There was a time when this deep-lying confidence of Hume’s was misdirected. He spoke with a hint of embarrassment last weekend, following the win over Munster, about being a ‘cocky wee so and so’. It was his centre partner, Stuart McCloskey, who helped him mature. “I had a lot of learning to do but Stu was one person I can say was always welcoming from day one. That speeded up my development.”

So did the call-it-as-you-see-it advice he used to get from Willie Anderson, his former academy coach.

“James had to be brought down a notch or two rather than be told he was wonderful,” says Anderson of the teenage Hume.

“We had our run-ins, and in fairness to him, he came through that period; he realised that it was not all about James Hume, that he was just a cog in a wheel.  

“I’d always tell the truth. Some guys liked it, some didn’t. But James liked the fact you respected him, that you trusted him, that you were honest.

“People know that when you are playing with James Hume, Michael Lowry, Robert Baloucoune, that they have got your back; that they not going to let you down, they are not doing it for the flash, they are doing it for the jersey, the province.”

It wasn’t just his attitude to his team mates that Hume worked at. He also had a close look in the mirror. Physically he realised he was out of shape, when he weighed in at 104.6kg on an Irish under-19s trip to France. His diet changed. He is now 96kg.

The turnaround came when he got a stress fracture in his foot ‘probably from carrying too much weight’. As a consequence, he was out for seven months.

By the time he came back, he had a different look. “That period resulted in me eating healthier and getting into better nick,” he said earlier this year. As a consequence he found his footwork had improved.

Soon opposition defences were making that discovery themselves. He scored a cracking try to put Ulster ahead in the 2020 Pro14 final before a familiar pattern unfolded. Leinster responded ruthlessly to win.

Nonetheless he’d made people sit up and notice. Andy Farrell, the Ireland coach, brought him into an Ireland camp a year later and gave some pointed advice, telling him how much he valued a player who delivered consistently week after week after week.

It was shortly after this chat with Farrell that he scored again against Leinster, this time in their victory in the RDS, when he drew confidence from the fact he ‘held his own’ against Henshaw. “I think those weeks were the ones when I really was like ‘I can do this; I am good enough at that level.’”

Now he wants to go to another level, with Ulster first, then Ireland next month.