McFarland: Scoreless third quarter cost Ulster

Ulster head coach Dan McFarland was once again left to rue his side's inability to knock out an opponent on the ropes as the DHL Stormers scored a late winning try.

Leading 15-10 and capitalising on some good attack play, the visitors established a foothold in the Stormers 22 but failed to secure the ball at lineout and then off a maul.

At that stage, a two-score margin would probably have done the trick.

"We lost it in the third quarter," said the head coach after the 17-15 defeat.

"That was where we started to have territory, field position and possession in their half and we couldn't score for our own errors."

The Stormers came from behind with 14 men in the final 10 minutes, after Adre Smith was sent off for interfering with the eyes of Iain Henderson #RTERugby #RTESport Full report: https://t.co/8QkJfTdiP8 pic.twitter.com/YFRP6Yqmvq

Ulster also had what would appear on paper as the advantage of playing against 14 men for the last 10 plus six minutes of overtime when Adre Smith was sent off for gouging Iain Henderson.

But, as Leinster found out in the Champions Cup final, the loss of a player can lift a team.

"We've played against red cards before and it can have a galvanizing effect," he said.

Ulster did have an opportunity to take a kick at goal during that spell of pressure but ultimately declined the shot.

From there, a Rob Herring knock on let the South Africans off the hook.

"[It was] something that we talked about on the pitch," said captain Henderson.

"We felt our maul was going well.

"It has gone well this season and we wanted to back it.

"In hindsight, three points would have been lovely sitting in this seat right now but we've to back our maul where we’ve done well all season, yeah, it’s a difficult one."

Asked where he