Ulster Rugby vs Glasgow Warriors

Q&A WITH CALLUM BLACK

Callum Black on celebrating his 100th appearance for Ulster this evening…

How has Ulster changed and evolved over the last five years? Massively. I think the support that we get now is huge and even just the development of the ground and the new stands and all the facilities that we have in place, including our new gym. It’s first class and I think it’s helped us build as a team and year on year we’re now competing for silverware. You have been close to winning silverware with Ulster over the past few seasons, do you think that’s far away? I think we are very close and I think as a squad we’re very determined to get some silverware under our belt. We have lost in the latter stages for the past couple of years. and I think the squad has plenty of young lads coming through and we obviously have some top class internationals – so we have a squad to compete with anyone and hopefully this is our year! You started a family here, does Belfast now feel like home? Yes definitely, we are very settled here and this is my fifth season. I got married to my wife Lucy here and my daughter Orla, who is now three, turning four in July, is at pre-school. She is loving it and as a family we are very settled here. We enjoy our time, it’s a great place to live. On a lighter note can you tell us an interesting fact about yourself? I was actually born in America and I do qualify for the USA, which a few people give me a bit of stick about. Also I can play the guitar but don’t bring that up very often. How do you plan to celebrate getting your 100th cap? My family will fly over from England so i’ll hopefully go out for a meal and celebrate over the weekend. Last season losing to Glasgow in the semi-final and then missing out on being in front of our home crowd in the final of the PRO12, which you would have thought was certain, was very disappointing. But we are determined to put that right

When you signed for Ulster back in 2011, did you ever think that you would reach 100 caps so quickly? Probably not actually. When I first joined Ulster I got quite a serious injury in my first year, a prolapsed disc in my neck - so I only played a handful of games. That was the year we got to the final of Europe and I was actually in the stands watching so no I didn’t think I’d be here so soon. It must be even more special to win your 100th cap in front of home fans against the current PRO12 Champions? Yeah definitely, it will be really special in front of the home crowd and with my family there watching. And obviously against Glasgow we’ve got a bit of history,

CALLUM BLACK

losing to them in the semis last season, so it’s a big game that we are determined to win. Do you have a favourite memory from your time at Ulster? We’ve had a lot of big games and some good victories in Europe. I think as a whole, probably the season where we had a 13 game winning streak at the beginning of the season,

that was a good time to be involved. Also when we won six out of six in our group in Europe and, Munster away, where I think we were written off in the quarter-final. We went down with what people thought was a second string young side and managed to get a victory at Thomond Park, that was a big occasion personally. Have you had any particularly challenging points through your time playing for Ulster? Not particularly. It comes with being a professional rugby player, just the frustration when you’re not involved. In my first year I was struggling with an injury and it’s hard to properly fit in when you’re injured joining somewhere new. Obviously the boys doing so well to get to the European final and having to watch that from the stands was a bit disappointing. I wanted to be a part of those big occasions and luckily I have been involved in some big games since then.

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