I have no idea what ref was thinking on key call, blasts Ulster boss ...

The province are again mired in a three-game losing streak but, while they were thumped by both Toulouse and Harlequins, they were seconds away from a scrappy win in Swansea.

Despite gifting the Ospreys their sole try of the day through an intercept, Jake Flannery’s 75th-minute penalty looked to have set them on their way to a much-needed victory.

However, Tom Stewart was pinged for changing his bind in the maul as Ulster looked to seal the win, with the hooker picked up on the ref mike claiming he had not heard Federico Vedovelli’s instruction to break away before the whistle.

Ospreys then won it with a 79th-minute drop goal, and McFarland said he had “literally no idea” about the penalty.

“I’m really proud of the effort,” said the coach.

“I thought we were high energy. A lot of our defence was really excellent.

“Apart from the intercept, we didn’t really give them a chance of scoring a try.

“On the other side of the coin, we were inaccurate, particularly in that first half, and let a number of opportunities pass us by as a result and gave them the foothold to get some penalties.

“At the end of the day, we were well in the game and in control but for two moments in that last quarter. (After) 64 minutes, we were in their ‘22’ and they get the intercept from 85 metres, and then the final passage, we were in control with a maul going forward in their third and the referee somehow says we’ve done something wrong, and I’ve literally no idea what he’s talking about or how he’s made that decision. They ended up down the other end of the field as a result of that.

“After all the effort that we put in there, to have it taken away and lose in those instances is disappointing.”

Ulster created enough chances to win the game but were inaccurate at key times, with McFarland thinking the three-week break played a big part.

He added: “There always were going to be errors, and a lot of teams this weekend have been making those sorts of errors.

“It’s been a three-week break away from games. There was always going to be inaccuracy there, and we can all say we need to be perfect when we come back, but that’s not the case in rugby.

“It was always going to be difficult, but we definitely deserved to be in a position to win that game, and those couple of instances took it away from us.”