Ulster coach Dan McFarland was left incandescent at a refereeing decision that almost certainly cost his team victory over the Stormers at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.

McFarland's team had staged a spirited fightback after falling 14-0 behind inside the first six minutes but came up short 23-20 in a nerve jangling and feverishly contested United Rugby Championship (URC) clash played under bright blue skies.

McFarland's mood, however. darkened at the end of the clash. His team thought they had snatched a late victory when replacement prop Callum Reid crashed over for a try in the 78th minute. However referee Gianluca Gnecchi overturned his decision upon exhaustive video review.

The evidence suggested Reid had the ball knocked from his grasp by a spoiling Stormers hand. What infuriated McFarland further was the decision to award the ensuing scrum to the Stormers. The hosts warmed to that task by scrumming their way to a penalty which effectively sealed the win.

“I can’t understand why that’s not a try,” said McFarland.

“I’ve got to be careful what I say here,” McFarland said cautiously at first. “But I can’t understand why that’s not a try.

“If it’s not a try, then why is it a knock-on (against Ulster)? They deliberately knocked the ball out of our hands. I don’t get that.

“I’ll wait to hear what they have to say about it,” he added, which suggests URC refereeing boss Tappe Henning's inbox will be bulging with video clips on Monday morning.

Ulster would have felt hard done by after staging a fightback that brought them to the cusp of victory.

While they played with élan in the very early stages of the game they were met by stubborn Stormers defence. They then went the more direct route and gradually drew the Stormers into their orbit of influence. They eschewed their earlier high energy passing game for something a little more confrontational.

“We got hit early,” said McFarland. “It was good play by them and poor play by us. We grew as the game progressed. Our aerial game in particular. We also managed to generate a lot of momentum close to the line.

“We put good pressure on them and then scored a good try at the end.

“In my head, we won that game, so we will move on. We don’t have the four log points but there were a lot of positives,” said the irate coach.

Stormers coach John Dobson was mightily relieved his team got the job done.

“They’re one of the best club teams in the world,” Dobson said. “They really played well and trapped us with their contestable kicking game. It was a very clever tactic, and very well executed.”