We can learn a lot, even from defeats like this, says McFarland

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McFarland continued: “We gave away a number of penalties, particularly at the end of the first half. There were four on the bounce which led to repeated attacks five metres from our line.

“One resulted in a try, and it was a poor piece of defence that let them in just before half-time. That was pretty poor.”

Ulster haven’t won in Llanelli for just shy of six years and this was not a performance ever likely to buck the trend, even if the visitors opened the scoring through Dave Shanahan’s try.

Scarlets had three by half-time and, after the turn, kept Ulster out of their half for a full 20 minutes before finally getting the bonus point score.

Ulster were forced into making more than 200 tackles, and did show a period of doggedness in keeping Scarlets out for as long as they did.

“In the second-half we were much better,” added McFarland (right). “(Defence coach) Jared (Payne) had a good chat at half-time. We were pretty physical in the second-half, we repelled some of those attacks.

“For 20 minutes we didn’t see the ball because we kept giving the penalties away and giving them a chance to come back into it.

“Having said that, some of the defence was excellent, and we managed to get a try.

“They’ll gain a lot. There’s a lot to be learned when you suffer defeats like that, even just the experience of playing Scarlets here.”