Ulster's Dan ​McFarland left ‘proud’ despite loss to Ospreys

​It was a third consecutive defeat in all competitions for Ulster and leaves them fighting to make the play-offs in the URC.

Jake Flannery’s penalty from his own half looked to have won it for Ulster on 76 minutes but, with the clock just ticking into the red, Ospreys out half Dan Edwards landed a 40-metre drop goal to win it for the Welsh region.

“I’m really proud of the effort the lads put in out there, I thought we were high energy, a lot of our defence was really excellent and, apart from the intercept try, we never gave them a chance of scoring a try,” said McFarland. “We knew it was going to be difficult coming over here, they have a very particular game around kick chase, they try to pin you in your half and I thought the way the lads went about combating that was good.

“On the other side of the coin, I thought we were inaccurate, particularly, in that first half when we let a number of opportunities pass us by.

“As a result, that gave them a little bit of a foothold to get some penalties but at the end of the day we were well in the game, well in control but two moments in that last quarter.

“On 64 minutes, we’re in their 22 and they get an intercept try from 85 metres out and then the final passage of play we’re in control with four minutes to go with a maul going forward in their third and the referee somehow says we have done something wrong, which I have literally no idea what he is talking about or how he has made that decision.

“They ended up down the field as a result of that, so after all the effort we put in there and to have it taken away and lose it in those couple of instances there is disappointing.”

McFarland feels there was always going to be a bit of rust after a month’s break.

“There always were going to be errors, a lot of teams have been making errors this weekend,” he said. “There has been a break away from the games, there was always going to be a bit of inaccuracy. We can all say we have to be perfect when we come back but that is not the case in rugby.”

Ulster now have a week off before facing a must-win home match with the Dragons, currently second-bottom in the table and have only won two games this season. McFarland has no doubt Ulster will bounce back.

He said: “We are professional sports people and we do this week in, week out...we’ll come back, there is disappointment in the result but we know we have to go and win next time.”

ULSTER: W.Addison; E.McIlroy, J.Hume, J.Postlewaithe, J.Stockdale; J.Flannery, N.Doak; A.Warwick, J.Andrew, M.Moore, H.Sheridan, I.Henderson, D.McCann, M.Rea, N.Timoney.

Replacements: T.Stewart, S.Kitshoff, S.Wilson, C.Izuchukwu, M.Rea, D.Shanahan, L.Marshall, R.Baloucoune.