‘All of these games are difficult . . . our basics simply weren’t good enough’ – Iain Henderson

But, after finishing their pool stage with a points difference of -59, not to mention having won just two of their last 10 games at Champions Cup level, it has been two years since they showed anything like their best at Europe’s top table.

Henderson, though, says he hasn’t lost faith in the direction of his native province.

“Putting it that way it doesn’t sound great but when you are playing in Europe, in the Champions Cup, you are playing against the top teams all around Europe.

“You are expecting to play sides that finished above you in our league, higher-ranked English and French sides, so it is not like we are playing any sort of low-level teams, every game in this competition is difficult.

“Yes we (only) won two but a lot of it is incredibly difficult and we’d openly admit we are not in the best form that we have been throughout my career.

“For us just to expect that to happen, it is unrealistic when we haven’t been performing.”

Likely the most frustrating aspect of this latest setback was how complicit Ulster were in their own downfall. They should, theoretically, have come in with considerably more motivation than their opponents who were already through to the last 16 and Quins’ didn’t need to be anywhere near their best to rack up such a bloated score.

Indeed, their 21-7 lead at half-time may as well have had a gift receipt at the bottom of the bag.

“Obviously things didn’t go the way we planned and I think a lot of it was down to us,” said Henderson. “Down to our mistakes and not taking our opportunities, a lot of our errors allowing Harlequins to take their opportunities.

“I think that is the one thing that is so frustrating, that we felt a handful of things that we were doing in terms of our territory and possession were the right things, the bounce of the ball and a few other things don’t go our way, and you are 14 points down.

“It’s frustrating but we have been there before, a lot of us have experienced that before, and we didn’t get the reaction to it that we wanted. A lot of our basics, be it our collisions or our own ball retention weren’t good enough.

“Some of it is individual errors, some of it is guys potentially backing up other people’s errors and probably trying to play a way that we shouldn’t be playing.

“I think there will be an overall look at how we manage the game, that’s the bigger picture, but individually (it’s) a lot more onus on our own individual mistakes.”

While Ulster now will not play until February 18 when they travel to a suddenly in-form Ospreys side, Henderson and five of his provincial colleagues joined up with the Ireland camp this morning to prepare for the Six Nations opener away to France on Friday week.

“It’s a quick turnaround and there’s no time to sit and feel sorry for ourselves,” he added.

“We’ll get into training and try to flick our mindsets in terms of calls and lineouts, all that stuff.

“The handful of us going down will really try to get on the ball and make sure we can hone our ears into that and give our all in that first training week and then hope for some representation in that first game.

“I’m really intrigued to see how things go. For us at home there’s been a few changes, Johnny (Sexton) leaving and a handful of new faces in.”