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Richie Murphy’s side had trailed 21-0 at Loftus Versfeld before staging a fightback which had put them in a position to win the game in the closing stages.

However, Stuart McCloskey was adjudged to have been in touch before putting James McKillop clear for a try and the Bulls then denied Ulster a second match point as Curwin Bosch's last kick of the game penalty stretched the South African side’s winning margin to beyond seven points.

Ulster have two defeats and two draws from their opening four games in the URC and travel to Cape Town for a clash with the fourth-placed Stormers on Saturday while all eight players selected in Andy Farrell’s Ireland squad fly home.

James McNabney is one of the players returning to Dublin and he felt Ulster missed an opportunity against the Bulls.

“We had a good second half, we just maybe left ourselves too much work to do initially,” he said. “From the first half, we had opportunities to win the game and stuff and we just didn't take those and we just needed to be more clinical. Our discipline let us down a bit.

“All in all, we're happy enough but we put ourselves in an opportunity to win the game and we didn't. It's a mix of emotions but the team will go again next week and hopefully beat the Stormers in Cape Town.

“Playing the Bulls in Pretoria was a good test: altitude, temperature, massive humans we're up against, it was good.

“I would like more minutes, but I only got 20 minutes there at the end but you've just got to take what you're given and try and embrace it.”

With Calean Dorris and Jack Conan ruled out of the Autumn series there is a vacancy for the Ireland No8 shirt and McNabney is hopeful of winning his first international cap.

“I’ve been in camp before, I really enjoyed it,” added the backrower. “Hopefully my experience is the same and I look to push on and get as much exposure and show the coaches what I'm all about.”

Head coach Richie Murphy outlined the disruption faced by his squad due to the Ireland call-ups.

“We have nine players in the Ireland squad, eight of them played against the Bulls and they headed home on Saturday and we have seven new players sitting in Cape Town and we’ll join up with them,” said Murphy.

Despite their lowly league position Murphy is confident Ulster can make the end of season play-offs in the URC.

“Our full focus is making sure we are in the top eight. I think last year towards the back end of the season we picked up quite a few injuries, and we were trying to prioritise different games,” he added.

“We came up against Stormers, Leinster and Glasgow very late on when we couldn’t field our full team. I’ll think we’ll be there at the end – that is our plan.”

Ulster were turned over 10 times against the Bulls and it is an area Murphy knows requires a lot to work before the Stormers game.

“From our point of view we have to improve around the breakdown, we are turning over the ball a little bit too easy over these first four games and our discipline,” he said.

“We know going to the Stormers you are going to have a big scrum battle. Some of their outside backs are electric, so we have to make sure we compete really well up front but that we are clever on how we compete at the breakdown so we are not giving away as many penalties as we are.”