Dan McFarland sets sights on Stormers after Ulster's bonus-point United Rugby Championship win over Cardiff

Dan McFarland’s side finish the campaign with three matches at Kingspan Stadium against the sixth-placed Bulls, the Dragons – who are second from bottom – and Edinburgh.

The head coach is eyeing overhauling Stormers, who currently occupy second spot, which would mean if Ulster won their quarter-final they would host a last-four game in Belfast.

“Our target is the Stormers,” said McFarland. “We want to finish second. They are five points ahead of us and I know that is not in our control.

“If we are aiming to get to second in the league we know we are going to have to win out and that is going to be really tough.

“The objective is to try and improve week on week. We’ll take a little bit of a break now and then we will get out heads down and focus on the Bulls who lost on Saturday, and they will be coming fully equipped to Kingspan and that will be a tough challenge for us.”

After traveling to Cape Town for the semi-final last year, McFarland know the importance of home advantage in the knockout stages.

“We were really disappointed last year because a refereeing decision stopped us getting the chance of a home semi-final and it was a big difference because ultimately, we lost in the semi-final in the 85th minute at the Stormers,” he added.

“It’s fine margins and getting home ties in the playoffs is important and we understand that. We know we can win away from home but we’d much rather play in front of our fans.”

Despite taking a maximum 10 points in their last two games against the Sharks and Cardiff, McFarland still thinks Ulster can improve.

“I think we are a chuck off playing as well as we can play,” he said. “I think we demonstrate parts of our game that are strong and good at various points, but I don’t think we put it together consistently.

“In attack I don’t think we have shown anywhere near what we are capable of doing so far this season and I am really pleased over the last two or three weeks that we are really starting to see that, but I think we really have to push that on as we get into the end of the season.

“We have got games against the Bulls who have a really good defence, a round-of-16 game against Leinster (Champions Cup) who are a pretty good team and unless we can push that on we’re not going to score enough points.”

Stewart Moore scored the first of Ulster’s six tries with less that two minutes on the clock at Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday.

Jacob Stockdale scored a superb solo effort and Nathan Doak crossed before the break. The scrum-half was successful with all three conversions to give Ulster a 21-7 lead at half time.

Billy Burns sprinted over for the bonus point, replacement hooker Tom Stewart was driven over from a maul before Stewart got his 11th try of the season, which Doak converted.