The Ireland A fly-half converted three of Leicester’s five tries, kicked a penalty and topped off his afternoon’s work with a jinking run past five Carnegie defenders to score the final touchdown inside the last 10 minutes of a 34-21 win.
“I had tried a couple of similar runs earlier in the game but they hadn’t come off,” said 25-year-old Humphreys. “But that time, with Tom Varndell taking a couple of the defenders out wide, I was able to run in and score.”
Humphreys last started a Guinness Premiership game in the win over London Irish at the end of December and admitted to taking a little while to settle back into the No.10 shirt on Saturday.
That process would not have been helped by a first-minute try from Leeds prop Fosi Pala’amo which helped the visitors to a 13-0 lead.
“It was a tough start and I felt a bit rusty,” Humphreys said. “No matter how much training you do, there is no comparison with getting smashed in a match and having to get up and think about the next play.
“Then when we went 13-0 down you wonder what has happened, but we had enough experienced guys out there to keep calm. The players said all we have to do is hold on to the ball, get through the phases, put some pressure on their defence and the scores will come.
“At that stage it was important we got the next score and that got us back into the game. The interception try from Tom Varndell was important too. We got a narrow lead by half-time and that was important so we could kick on from there.”
