Ulster boss Dan McFarland expressed frustration over his side showing their "fighting spirit" too late in their United Rugby Championship defeat by Edinburgh on Saturday.

"It is so frustrating," said McFarland.

"We needed to show that in minutes 12-20 when we let opportunities pass us by.

"We had 14 men and came back so convincingly to dominate the last six minutes of the game and we scored two tries. It was good to be accurate then and to show fighting spirt."

Ulster started the game brightly at the Kingspan Stadium, racing ahead through Tom Stewart's early try.

Edinburgh responded with a try of their own before Stewart crossed for his and Ulster's second just before the half-hour mark.

Further tries from Pierre Schoeman and Robin Hislop gave Edinburgh a comfortable lead but Ulster continued to fight with Robert Baloucoune and James Hume darting over in the closing stages.

It was Ulster's second successive loss after defeat by Glasgow Warriors last weekend and McFarland was critical of his side's performance, particularly in the first half.

"I think we were inaccurate, that was the problem in the first half," he said.

"We got off to a good start with lots of pressure, we were really good working with our maul, but by 30-35 minutes we made six turnovers, giving them access to the game at that point.

"We made it a dog fight when it shouldn't have been. Once it became that backwards and forwards contest, I think they did pretty well."

He added: "When you don't take your opportunities, you'll be under pressure at some point."

McFarland said Ulster must lift their standards in training, especially before their return to Champions Cup action against Bath next weekend.

"We need to be more focused and more understanding. We had a good team out there, a backline full of internationals and we need to execute. We've got to be better.

"We trained very well on Thursday but we didn't train well on Tuesday. A lot of that is down to the cohesion aspect and a lot of chop and change - but we need to be consistently more accurate while training."