The final curtain call for Humphreys

"YOUV'E GOT to look at it as the glass half full, don't you," says Ulster and Ireland's David Humphreys. Tonight the outhalf will pull on the Ulster shirt for the final time when he steps onto the Ravenhill Road turf.

A decade on, a niggling Achilles tendon is still giving grief, but still there is a note of satisfaction in his voice. Not wanting to leave the game he has played with distinction but not unhappy about what awaits him after a summer of golf and then back into civvies, Humphreys departs as one of the iconic figures in the Irish game.

"This is not a sad day," he adds. "This match is a complete bonus, a bonus to have the opportunity to play again. I've had a couple of months of injury, broke down a few times. It's not necessarily cleared up but good enough to start and we'll see how it goes."

His retirement from the professional game will take him deeper into the law career he left in the deep freeze when he turned professional with London Irish and earned his first Irish cap in 1996.

Since then the game has evolved almost every year and is about to change even more with the introduction of the ELVs. Perhaps the beginning of a new era is a good time to let go.

"Very little has remained the same in the game," he says. "On the pitch. Off the pitch. The way we train, the way we play, the refereeing." And the new rules?

"I don't think I agree with all of them. But until you've played them you don't really know. When I went professional I thought maybe I'd get one or two years. I had 10 years. That is what a sportsman dreams of. It has been a wonderful time and now I'm ready to move on to something else."

Humphreys has had a varied career with Queens University, with Oxford, with London Irish, with Ulster and with Ireland. He will be remembered fondly by his Oxford team in the 1995 Varsity match, which Oxford lost 21-19 but Humphreys provided all the points, a try, a conversion, a drop goal and three penalties. The European Cup win in 1999 was also a peak on the Ulster captain's career graph.

"I've had lots of great games in Ravenhill and yes, the whole experience of winning the European Cup was fantastic," he says. "Ulster rugby wasn't mapped until then. Winning the cup kick-started that. It probably needs to be kick-started again. But the win not only lifted Ulster but Irish rugby too."

He is not one to hang on to what he knows and the break is going to be clean. Walking onto the pitch will be as much fanfare as he wants. Humphreys has often declined the spotlight. He's never been a razzmatazz sort of guy.

"At this stage I don't see myself ever getting involved in coaching," he says. "I'll go along and support Ulster, Ireland. I'm not sure exactly what I'll do but at the moment it's play golf and start work in September."

ULSTER:M Bartholomeusz; T Bowe, A Trimble, R Dewey, S Danielli; D Humphreys, I Boss; B Young, R Best (c), T Court, J Harrison, R Caldwell, S Ferris, K Dawson, R Wilson Replacements: N Brady, J Fitzpatrick, M McCullough, N Best, P Marshall, P Wallace, M McCrea

CARDIFF:N Macleod; R Davies, M Stcherbina, D Hewitt, L Halfpenny; N Robinson, R Rees; T Filise, G Williams, G Powell, B Davies, S Morgan, M Molitika, B White. Replacements: J Yapp, T Thomas, J Down, M Lewis, R Shellard, J Spice, D Flanagan

VERDICT:Cardiff

Venue: Ravenhill Kick-off: 7.30