Centurion Callum Black aims to rewrite history

Ulster’s century-making loose-head Callum Black is determined to rewrite the history books against Leinster in the first of the Guinness Pro12 semi-finals tomorrow evening.

Black, who scored his first try in Ulster colours three weeks ago in celebration of his 100th appearance, is determined to help steer the province into the final in Edinburgh the following weekend.

To do that, Ulster must be the first club to win away from home in the Top Four shoot-out. The fact that they are facing their close rivals Leinster makes it even harder.

Although Ulster pummelled Leinster into submission a fortnight ago with a 30-6 bonus-point win at Ravenhill, Leo Cullen’s side have won 11 of the last 12 meetings in Dublin and five of the six games in knockout clashes in all competitions between the sides.

“Everything is on their side, they are the home team at the RDS, and they finished top of the pile,” said Black who has started Ulster’s last five games and eight of the last nine.

“We respect them as a team and they are full of class internationals, but we are going in on Friday night full of confidence and if we want to be in the final, Leinster is who we have to beat and we are determined as a squad to put in a performance.

““We have to be very clinical, switched on and ready for the job at hand, it’s been well documented that we have gone close in the last few seasons and it’s about time we delivered,” said Black who can look back at a good season with plenty of rewards, but with hopefully more to come.

“It’s good to get a run of games, getting the milestone of 100 caps for a big club like Ulster and running out at the Kingspan Stadium with my daughter that night. Then getting my first try for Ulster it all worked out quite well,” said Black.

“I’m chuffed with how the season has gone, we’re in a good place as a squad and we’re on a good run so hopefully we can finish it off with a winner’s medal at the end of it.

“We have been in this situation before but I think in years gone by we have finished top of the table and haven’t got to that winner’s medal at the end.

“But if you look at this year as it has gone on we have got better and we are peaking at the right time, we are very confident going into Friday night and we will give it our all and we’re very focused on getting into the final.”