Following a glittering schools' rugby career that saw him collect three Danske Bank Ulster Schools' Cup titles with RBAI, James Hume was rightly looking forward to joining the Abbey Insurance Ulster Academy last summer. However, the start to life in the Academy didn't go exactly as planned...
“I picked up a pretty bad injury at the start of pre-season, a stress fracture in my foot that required an operation in August then it was February before I was able to play my first game. So I spent a lot of time rehabbing it, a lot of work with (Academy S&C Coach) Amy Davis and (Academy Physio) Dave Minion to get back on track. I spent a lot of hours conditioning off-feet and then a lot of time running in the cold weather during the winter to try and get back to fitness. I also did quite a lot of work with (Performance Psychologist) Cormac Venney on the mental side of it to try and keep my mind right during the lay off.”
Back to full fitness, Hume quickly joined up with the Ireland U20 team for the Six Nations before turning his attention to the Banbridge and Ulster A squads who were both pushing for end of season honours.
“After my first club game back I was straight into Irish U20 camps so it was full tilt from there. After the U20 Six Nations the focus was back to Banbridge for the All Ireland League run-in and we had a strong finish to the season but unfortunately lost narrowly to UCC in the promotion play-off final. However, it was great for me to get experience and I found it very beneficial. I had missed the earlier stages of the British & Irish Cup for Ulster A but came in for the quarter-final against Bedford, which was another great opportunity to experience rugby against Championship level opposition and it was really enjoyable to get back working in that professional environment.”
The powerful centre is one of six Ulster men selected for the upcoming U20 World Championships in France, a figure which would’ve been higher only for a number of other Ulster players having been ruled out due to injury.
“There’s a great crop of players currently in the Ulster Academy, great guys off the pitch and excellent players on it, so it’s great to see Ulster so strongly represented in this Irish U20 side. We’re starting the competition against France who will have a massive home support and we’ve got a pretty tough group so we know it’s going to be a real challenge, but it’s a really exciting prospect and we’re going over with a lot of confidence.”
Having watched nine of his fellow Academy players tasting first team action this season, Hume acknowledges this is a great source of confidence as he looks ahead to next year.
“We’ll get a few weeks off when we get back from France then it’ll be straight back into training so the focus will be on staying injury free and getting a good pre-season under my belt. We’ve all seen the number of Academy players who got senior game time this season so we all realize that those opportunities could be just around the corner and we have to be in the right mind space for that. We work closely with the senior squad and it’s great to be in that environment, learning from those guys and testing yourself against them, which gives you great confidence when you make the step up to Ulster A or hopefully senior level.”
“I picked up a pretty bad injury at the start of pre-season, a stress fracture in my foot that required an operation in August then it was February before I was able to play my first game. So I spent a lot of time rehabbing it, a lot of work with (Academy S&C Coach) Amy Davis and (Academy Physio) Dave Minion to get back on track. I spent a lot of hours conditioning off-feet and then a lot of time running in the cold weather during the winter to try and get back to fitness. I also did quite a lot of work with (Performance Psychologist) Cormac Venney on the mental side of it to try and keep my mind right during the lay off.”
Back to full fitness, Hume quickly joined up with the Ireland U20 team for the Six Nations before turning his attention to the Banbridge and Ulster A squads who were both pushing for end of season honours.
“After my first club game back I was straight into Irish U20 camps so it was full tilt from there. After the U20 Six Nations the focus was back to Banbridge for the All Ireland League run-in and we had a strong finish to the season but unfortunately lost narrowly to UCC in the promotion play-off final. However, it was great for me to get experience and I found it very beneficial. I had missed the earlier stages of the British & Irish Cup for Ulster A but came in for the quarter-final against Bedford, which was another great opportunity to experience rugby against Championship level opposition and it was really enjoyable to get back working in that professional environment.”
The powerful centre is one of six Ulster men selected for the upcoming U20 World Championships in France, a figure which would’ve been higher only for a number of other Ulster players having been ruled out due to injury.
“There’s a great crop of players currently in the Ulster Academy, great guys off the pitch and excellent players on it, so it’s great to see Ulster so strongly represented in this Irish U20 side. We’re starting the competition against France who will have a massive home support and we’ve got a pretty tough group so we know it’s going to be a real challenge, but it’s a really exciting prospect and we’re going over with a lot of confidence.”
Having watched nine of his fellow Academy players tasting first team action this season, Hume acknowledges this is a great source of confidence as he looks ahead to next year.
“We’ll get a few weeks off when we get back from France then it’ll be straight back into training so the focus will be on staying injury free and getting a good pre-season under my belt. We’ve all seen the number of Academy players who got senior game time this season so we all realize that those opportunities could be just around the corner and we have to be in the right mind space for that. We work closely with the senior squad and it’s great to be in that environment, learning from those guys and testing yourself against them, which gives you great confidence when you make the step up to Ulster A or hopefully senior level.”