Impressive Humphreys credits Ulster pack

The Magners League outfit were in superb form as they bounced back from a disappointing league defeat at home to Glasgow last weekend.

Ireland A fly-half Humphreys played a pivotal role as the 1999 European Champions cruised to a 23-13 victory at Ravenhill on Saturday afternoon.

As well as contributing 13 points thanks to three penalties and two conversions against the French giants, Humphreys was twice involved in the opening try of the game and continually kept Stade on the back foot with a mixture of impressive tactical kicking and a willingness to run from deep.

But the 27-year-old refused to take any credit for his side's performance, instead choosing to praise the quality of the Ulster pack.

"The forwards won us the game," said Humphreys, after the Ulster eight dominated proceedings in the Round 3 encounter.

"The setpiece was brilliant all day. That was critical, particularly against a team as dangerous as Stade.

"The aggression round the breakdown also played a really important part. It was effectively what meant we came out with a win.

"The forwards deserve a lot of credit for that performance. They set a platform for us to play from and made my life a lot easier than it might have been."

Despite coming into the game on the back of a Heineken Cup loss at Edinburgh and that Magners League defeat to Glasgow, Ulster were always in control against the Parisians.

Stade's only try arrived in the dying minutes and the scoreline was a touch kind to Rodrigo Roncero and co.

One of the key reasons for Ulster's success was the way in which they outplayed Stade at their own game.

It was Ulster who were more willing to run from within their own territory; they were the side who chanced their arm when the game was in the balance; and they were the ones who created something from nothing to twice cross for counter-attacking scores.

"It's the type of performance that we're striving for each week," added Humphreys.

"The tactics were that we couldn't just afford to kick to their back three. Stade are so dangerous in broken play and you don't want their widemen running free ball back at you too often.

"We know that, if it's on, we'll go for it from anywhere. That's the way we want to play the game. And that's what we did.

"I have to mention the crowd as well. The crowd were immense. The noise was class. It's exactly what you want to hear when you play at home.

"We now need to produce that kind of display for the rest of the competition if we want to have a chance of progressing to the quarter-finals."