As well as Lowry's injury, hooker Rob Herring and props Andrew Warwick and Callum Reid also sustained knocks, and Murphy says "there was a lot of disruption" with the injuries.

Murphy admitted Leinster, who top the URC table "are a top-class side" but felt the hosts benefited from a number of 50/50 calls at the scrum and breakdown in the first half.

Dan Sheehan scored a hat-trick off the bench in the second half, and the defeat leaves Ulster outside the top eight with three rounds of fixtures remaining.

Ulster face the Sharks in Belfast next week before trips to Munster and Edinburgh to round out their campaign.

"Over the past number of weeks we have shown a lot of resilience," Murphy added.

"That's growing within the group. The guys are very disappointed in relation to the scoreline.

"We have to dust ourselves down very quickly and get on to Sharks. We knew this was going to be a really tough game and Sharks at home will not be easy.

"We'll have to see who is fit. We picked up quite a lot of injuries today, but we'll dust ourselves down and go again next week."