Ulster players believe they are more than good enough to win the Challenge Cup, says Ulster winger Robert Baloucoune as he aims to put hamstring nightmare behind him

The winger has been plagued by injury but is hoping that after period of treatment he is ready to spearhead Ulster’s challenge for silverware domestically and in Europe.

Baloucoune returned to the starting line-up in last Saturday’s defeat at the Stormers and looked sharp with the ball in hand, and he gave an honest assessment of his form which has only yielded one try in 13 games.

“Overall fitness of me being able to do what I am good at, in terms of speed I have been able to chase box kicks but I have struggled a wee bit with my hamstring,” he said.

“It’s about being able to be out on the pitch and feel good.

“I have definitely struggled with it, one week it is good, one week it is bad so it is just me getting that consistency so I can perform.

“Strength and conditioning are great, the physios are great, they gave me time over the last few weeks to really get it sorted.

"At the start of the season I was just kind of playing and going home to see how it goes and it kind of deteriorated, so it was great to get a bit of time there to get me into better shape.

“I’m with the IRFU physios as well to see what they can do with it, it has been new for me and helping in what I need to get right to be fully fit on that pitch.

“It felt really good during the last game but obviously now I need to back it up the next week.

“The aim is to be able to do what I used to do and on top of it and be able to do what I need to do on the pitch.”

Ulster travel to Montpellier on Sunday for a last 16 clash in the Challenge Cup and Baloucoune knows the side must improve on their record of four wins in their last 14 knock-out games.

He stated: “Knock-out rugby is tough and you get one chance at it and all you can do is go out there and try your best and that is all that we can do.

“It is a new challenge, so it is definitely something that we are all looking forward to.

“I look back on games, you make mistakes in games and think I could have done better and that is just the way of knock-out rugby.

“The way I look at it is just go out there do what you need to do right and collectively that helps the team and that is the stuff that I will be focusing on going into this game.

“We have shown performances in the last lot of years and we definitely believe that we are good enough to go out and win this competition and that is what we are doing just building on from each training programme that we do.”

Baloucoune revealed the off-the-field chaos at Kingspan Stadium hasn’t affected the players.

“Obviously there has been change but we are a tight knit group, we believe in each other, and we are all mates so in those terms nothing much has changed,” he stressed.

“Richie (Murphy) has told us what he wants so all you can do is stick the head down and train the way he wants us to be doing.”