AFTER MAKING HIS Ireland bow over the summer, centre James Hume is putting all his energy into making sure he doesn’t become a one-cap wonder and builds on his first experience of camp.
The Ulster midfielder earned a call from Andy Farrell for his off-season squad and was the starter at outside centre for the 71-10 rout of the United States at the Aviva Stadium back in July, impressing without getting on the scoresheet in the one-sided victory.
The jersey from that day now hangs in his family home, while he also has a ball from the game that is signed by his fellow backs as an additional memento – but that’s not where he wants the journey to end.
While winning one cap is some achievement, Hume isn’t willing to settle for just the solitary tog out in the green jersey, and reveals his brief taste has left him ravenous for more.
“My motivation is that I’m still nowhere near where I want to be. I set pretty high bars at the minute,” explained the ambitious 23-year-old.
“Just being in that 50-man squad again has really pushed me on, and they have obviously seen me in a good light from those summer tests. That has really pushed me on.
“When I ran out against the USA I burst out crying, I was so overwhelmed, and that has given me a severe amount of hunger to go again.
“I have upped my game in terms of nutrition, recovery, training and just putting the extra effort in where I can, and hopefully it starts to pay off in games because I am doing way more behind the scenes than I did last year.”
That includes taking a leaf out of the John Cooney playbook and listening to several motivational podcasts along with his on-ice work, and clearly things have been progressing nicely as he was included in the extended squad again for a short get together at Carton House last week.
But even Hume himself does not deny that, as an Irish centre, game time is not exactly in bountiful supply given the presence of Robbie Henshaw, Garry Ringrose and Bundee Aki who, between them, have rather monopolised the position.
Indeed, Hume’s cap against the Eagles came while Henshaw and Aki were away with the Lions and Ringrose was out injured, and with all three due to be back in place for the Autumn Internationals, the Ulster man acknowledges he will have to keep growing to be challenging them for minutes.
“I think the hunger kind of came from how much I need to do. It is maybe not one area of the game, it is every area of the game, there are another couple of steps to being world class,” he added.
“I’m working on every part of the game at the minute. I alluded to the off-pitch stuff to get my body in the best way possible, to train the best way possible to play as many games as possible.
“There is that and then there is the on-field stuff – I maybe want to excel in my kicking game. I took a bit of time off kicking after school because Sopes (Ulster attack coach and Hume’s head coach at RBAI, Dan Soper) said to me ‘I don’t want you to ever place kick again’ after my final year in school, so that will be something that I’ll work on this year.
“Consistency of basics is just a big thing, how well you can kick and pass, how well you can see space. There are so many parts of the game that I haven’t tapped into so it’s exciting.”
Of course, the first place Hume will get a chance to prove he is improving in all these areas is with Ulster, and the Belfast man starts their United Rugby Championship opener against Glasgow Warriors at Kingspan Stadium this evening (7.35pm).
As it is every season, the northern province start the campaign looking up at rivals Leinster and wondering how they will close the seemingly widening gap between them, and Hume believes the key lies in having more confidence in their own ability.
When asked how Ulster take that next step this season, Hume replied: “Probably just to back ourselves a bit more in those big games. We kicked a lot in the Leicester game (their Challenge Cup semi-final defeat) and lost a bit of control.
“A couple of times when we lost during the season we were being a bit too safe and kicking a lot, whereas I remember the Leinster game at the end of the season how I enjoyed playing in it because we were confident and threw the ball around.
“We took a lot of edges and ended up scoring a couple of good tries, so maybe that is something this year that we really can push on with.”
Ulster
15. Ethan McIlroy; 14. Robert Baloucoune, 13. James Hume, 12. Stuart McCloskey, 11. Jacob Stockdale; 10. Billy Burns, 9. John Cooney; 1. Andrew Warwick, 2. Brad Roberts, 3. Marty Moore; 4. Alan O’Connor, 5. Sam Carter (captain); 6. Greg Jones, 7. Sean Reidy, 8. Nick Timoney.
Replacements: 16. Rob Herring, 17. Eric O’Sullivan, 18. Tom O’Toole, 19. Mick Kearney, 20. Matty Rea, 21. Nathan Doak, 22. Michael Lowry, 23. Will Addison.
Glasgow Warriors
15. Cole Forbes; 14. Kyle Steyn, 13. Sione Tuipulotu, 12. Sam Johnson, 11. Rufus McLean; 10. Duncan Weir, 9. George Horne; 1. Brad Thyer, 2. Johnny Matthews, 3. Simon Berghan; 4. Scott Cummings, 5. Richie Gray; 6. Ryan Wilson (captain), 7. Rory Darge, 8. Jack Dempsey.
Replacements: 16. Fraser Brown, 17. Jamie Bhatti, 18. Murray McCallum, 19. Lewis Bean, 20. Rob Harley, 21. Jamie Dobie, 22. Ross Thompson, 23. Ollie Smith.
Bernard Jackman, Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey look ahead to the inaugural United Rugby Championship, and a massive weekend for Ireland in their bid to qualify for the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
