Skipper Iain Henderson always knew something special was building at Ulster despite results on the pitch last season.

The province suffered their worst ever league finish last season of 14th in the United Rugby Championship and won one of their four pool games in the European Champions Cup, which proved enough to scrape into the knockout stages when they lost to eventual tournament winners Bordeaux.

This season, however has been a revelation. Ulster sit third in the URC with a game in hand over second-place Glasgow and are the top points-scorers in the competition, while in the European Challenge Cup Richie Murphy’s side topped their pool and have a home last-16 clash with the Ospreys.

Before a ball was kicked at the start of the season against the Dragons, Henderson said: “I'm not going to sit here and say we're going to win silverware this season, that's not currently our goal; it's not probably our strongest squad we've ever had.”

placeholder image — Ulster skipper Iain Henderson never lost faith in the province's ability to bounce back from a poor season. (Photo by Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press)

However, he maintained the squad was capable of challenging for honours.

“Did I not say to you back then that we've been seeing something in the background?” added Henderson ahead of Saturday’s trip to face Scarlets in the URC. “Surprised is maybe not the right terminology, maybe I've kind of been very pleased with how we've put ourselves out there.

“I remember sitting in here, maybe towards the end of last year – maybe this time last year – and thinking, trying to explain to you guys, training is going really well, we do have a heap of good players who can actually play rugby, believe it or not, and we are progressing behind closed doors.

“I genuinely believed that then, and probably in a load of those young guys, I probably sensed… I was frustrated with how things were going here, and I'm sure they were frustrated that they wouldn't be able to play the way they knew they could play.

“I suppose it's been great to see training throughout the pre-season block, and then obviously through the first number of months of the season actually seeing training going really well, and seeing what we're doing in training, and seeing those young guys and their abilities being put on show at weekends.

“So, has it been perfect? Far from it. There's been loads of times in games where we look at it and be like, ‘we actually ran that pretty close there’, or ‘we got through that by the skin of our teeth’, but the fact that we're doing that and setting ourselves up to be in positions like that to win I suppose is much better than in many positions we were in last year.”

Henderson praised Mark Sexton’s addition to the coaching ticket but believes there are other factors for Ulster’s resurgence.

“I think Mark's been a huge piece of the puzzle. Has it solely been Mark? I don't think so,” added the skipper.

“I think there was huge amounts of potential there before, and with guys maybe maturing into their rugby career, Mark maybe just tweaking what they've been building for long periods of time.

“I think it's probably a combination of all those things. Willie (Faloon) has been great too, in terms of last year, and I suppose maybe having a better attack almost sometimes allows your D (defence) to get on top of itself and get better, and then progress that week-to-week.

“It's very difficult to fix your defence when you're under the pump, because you're not attacking. But I'd say it's not solely (down to) Mark, but I'd say Mark is a huge, huge piece of that puzzle.”