Gerry Thornley talks to Ireland's outhalf who looks to hold the keyto a coveted quarter-final World Cup date

Rumour had it that David Humphreys was becoming a little weary of the game, a little bored. He needs to play, and being a reservist wasn't much consolation for being away from his wife and two young children. At the start of 2003, he wouldn't have seen the year as it has panned out. Treat every game like it's your last, he kept telling himself.

One man's misfortune and all that. Ronan O'Gara, his friend and rival of almost four years now, was injured by Brett Sinkinson's gratuitous stamping in the Celtic League final. Humphreys is as surprised as anyone that tomorrow's little affair with Argentina will be his 10th start in 13 Tests this year.

At 32, as fit as ever and clearly buzzing, it's tempting to say he's never played better. "I'm not saying I've played superbly in every game but I've achieved a level of consistency in every game in terms of kicking and the basics, which as an outhalf you have to have," he allows himself.

"And I'm enjoying it more than ever, I really am. It's a great squad to be a part of. We all believe there's something very, very special. Not just in what we can achieve, but it's a really, really good group of players, and you don't want to walk away from it."

Still going strong at 32, from the enigmatic or mercurial one (and those were the complimentary descriptions) to Mr Consistency? Humphreys finds this even more implausible than some of his old Oxford or London Irish team-mates would. Why, he even tackles now.

"This is the irony of it all. Ten years ago, if you look back, I was talked about as a running outhalf; I couldn't control a game, I couldn't do this, couldn't do that. Whereas now that's considered my strength, and I'm not considered a running outhalf any more. It's literally turned 360 degrees. In some ways it's frustrating," he admits, wistfully allowing himself to think back to those more individualistic days of yore.

"It is the way the game has gone. You can't be (so individualistic). There are exceptions to that rule, like Carlos Spencer, but generally speaking because of the way Ulster plays, because we don't have the Brian O'Driscolls, the world-class players which very few teams have, we have a very defined structure of playing. Learning to play within that has possibly reflected in the way I played over the last few years."

The cheeky old Humphreys spark is there. He's still given licence to play what he sees in front of him, it's just that with defence so much better organised, he has to be more judicious about when he unlocks it. Like the dummy, sidestep and link with O'Driscoll inside his own half after 22 minutes which kickstarted the move that led to Ireland's first try of the World Cup by Shane Horgan. For the most part, though, nowadays he's there to serve and provide for those around him.

In a rapidly changing rugby landscape, Humphreys is, literally, one of the last graduates from what has become a bygone era. His adult career was honed on college rugby, back in the days when college rugby still was something.

Whether it be Queen's, Trinity, UCD, UCC or UCG, their teams were made up of like-minded free spirits, talented kids encouraged to express themselves. When the AIL came along they were no longer a protected species, and with the advent of professionalism, they've almost become endangered.

"Without a shadow of a doubt I look back on my four years at Queen's and even my year at Oxford as the most enjoyable. It was fun. Obviously we wanted to win, and nobody likes losing, but it didn't really matter. We went out to play a certain way with good players, you just developed that way," he says.

"The game has changed so much. A lot of the guys can't comprehend what it was like back then. There were no such things as gameplans. Literally. You had a few lineout calls and three or four moves, and that was it. I could show you 20 pages of what I'm going to try and do this Sunday. You nearly need a degree (in rugby) to understand what you're trying to do," he says, though he considers himself very fortunate to have experienced such diverse ends of the spectrum.

He was even lucky enough to have a like-minded free spirit at London Irish in Clive Woodward, the memory of which makes him laugh again.

"It was brilliant. He is a top-class coach. Every player that played for him at London Irish went out thinking they were the best player in the UK. There was a pressure on us to perform, but there was never a pressure on us not to do things."

The change for him began under Willie Anderson at London Irish.

"Because none of us had ever done it before, we probably ran before we could walk at London Irish. Because when you think, we had an incredible team," he says, listing a host of talented Irish internationals. "But we'd only experienced the amateur game. We weren't ready for it."

With Ulster and Ireland he's gradually become the player he is today, which is even a far cry from that fateful night in Lens. Striking the ball beautifully, Humphreys was the architect of a highly structured, mostly kicking game.

He landed seven penalties from seven attempts and a drop goal, though he couldn't push Ireland clearer in front with a couple more drop goal attempts.

Whereupon, when Ireland suddenly fell behind, his game cracked under pressure along with everyone else's.

He's never looked at it on video since. It's not, he says, because it's that painful or unbearable. But he can remember it vividly anyway.

"We should always have won the game. There's no question about that. That's the starting point for any discussion about the Lens game, we should have won the game. But looking back now, number one they weren't as bad as people made out. If you look at how many of their players are playing again on Sunday, I'm sure there's quite a few. We were not prepared, we'd flown to France, we thought we were going to win, we expected to play France at Lansdowne Road.

"We set out to play a certain way, and if we'd just changed it a little bit we would have won. I just think that in the last 15 minutes of that game we were beating our head against a brick wall. But it's one of those things, it's easy to look back in hindsight and say we should have done something differently but we were within I'd say a foot of the goal-line on how many occasions, and because we were so close we believed at the time that if we kept going we would eventually score.

"I reckon that if we played that game another 99 times, we'd score nearly every time, but with hindsight we should have moved it a bit wider. That's the way it is. Credit to them, they defended unbelievably."

He can never remember a worse feeling at a full-time whistle. None of those playing would ever get the chance of a World Cup quarter-final at Lansdowne Road ever again. He makes a noise through his lips, as if of despair.

"It was an incredible feeling. It was the first time I felt that real 'oh no, it's over'. Because we had such high hopes going in. We believed that we'd beat France in the quarter-finals at Lansdowne Road. We had no doubt about that."

That was part of the problem, he concedes. Warren Gatland and Dion Ó Cuinneagáin had sought to build up self belief and aspirations by targeting the semi-finals via that home quarter-final against France. The Irish psyche wasn't ready for it. Probably never will be.

"It doesn't work. I think we're the sort of team that needs to concentrate on one game, and every step we take is another step down the line. There's no point in saying we're looking to get to the final. We know we can get to the final. But, no point in even going there." Lesson number one then, don't look ahead of the next match.

He's known other bad days, and on a par with that one was missing a match-winning penalty with the last kick against France at Lansdowne Road a week after lifting the Heineken Cup at the same venue with Ulster.

A chance of minor redemption came in Buenos Aires less than a year later. Ulster had been out of Europe long before, whereas Munster had lost the final the preceding week. Humphreys, unlike Ronan O'Gara, hadn't had much rugby, and was surprised he was picked to play. In hindsight, he probably wishes he wasn't. His running and distribution were good, and Ireland outscored Argentina by four tries to three, but with Humphreys failing to convert any of them and missing a penalty from almost in front of the posts, Ireland went down by 34-23.

"Again, we should have won the game, and I missed a kick pretty much in front of the posts. And that's all I remember about that game," he recalls except for a match-turning incident midway through the second half. With Ireland in front and in a prime attacking position to the left touchline inside the Puma 22, Mick Galwey set off for the line and was harshly pinged for not releasing.

"We went off the back, Gaillimh got popped the ball and we were screaming for it out in the backs."

But they've made him stronger. Humphreys is made of sterner stuff and the good days have been rolling this last while. Having soldiered through the bad days, both he and O'Gara have now been in more winning Irish teams than losing ones. With it has come an innate self-belief, but not over-confidence. Two different mentalities altogether.

Humphreys knows that this Irish team is good enough to win and if it plays close to or at its best, he believes they will win. "Off the map" is how he describes the difference between this team and the one of four years ago. More experience and more team leaders, that's the key as he sees it.

"It's not an old team but it's experienced. Apart from three or four injuries, Ireland are in the best position we could be in, in every possible way, so everything is in place for us to go out and do well this weekend."

In what is shaping up to be a tight, close, unbearably tense game, Humphreys likens the Pumas to the Munster side of three or four years ago. "It was so hard to play any sort of pattern against Munster because they were so destructive. Argentina are the same, that's why I'm glad we've got a very strong referee (Andre Watson). It is a huge factor. The referee is probably more important than any player on the pitch."

It could well be decided by the kicking duel between Humphreys and Gonzalo Quesada. So much of Ireland's hopes of reaching the quarter-final will rest on their outhalf. After missing his first two against Namibia, Quesada has landed 10 of his last 11 kicks. Undeterred by swaying goalposts in Gosford, Humphreys's only miss from eight kicks at goal was a touchline conversion which was blown violently off course.

He's revelling in it all right. The buzz of the build-up to this game especially, fantastic facilities, a country that's utterly bought into this competition, competing on a world stage with the likes of Wilkinson, Carlos Spencer, Stephen Larkham and all the others. Tomorrow, much of the rugby world will be watching him.

"A few years ago I honestly didn't expect to be here, so I might as well enjoy it . . . I'll be nervous, it'll be pretty tense, but it's what you want to do.

"There's no doubt about it. I wouldn't have it any other way. When you lose that competitive edge and that nervous edge, that's when you know it's time to give it a miss." He was born for this stage really. The year begins on a high. In January, Humphreys lifts the European Cup for Ulster after they defeat Colomiers in the final at Lansdowne Road.

A week later, he misses a match-winning penalty with the last kick of the game against France at the same venue.

In October, Humphreys scores seven penalties from seven and a drop goal, but, with a quarter-final at Lansdowne Road beckoning, Ireland are eliminated from the World Cup by Argentina. Humphreys and Gonzalo Quesada renew their kicking duel in Adelaide tomorrow.