Cape Town - Bulls coach John Mitchell believes his side was on the receiving end of some questionable refereeing decisions in their loss to the Stormers.
The Bulls went down 29-17 in a high-tempo clash at Newlands on Saturday, and while Mitchell acknowledged that his side had come off second best in the contest, he felt that they could have got more out of referee Glen Jackson.
"I thought the referee was tough on us today," Mitchell said at the post-match press conference.
"We didn't get much consistency or the rub of the green at all. We had to work hard to stay calm and not allow that to upset us."
When asked to be more specific, Mitchell said that hr would need to study the video footage.
"I have to look at some of the detail around it ... especially at scrum time when there are knees on the ground and stuff like that," he said.
"Those are the sort of things that can go either way."
That said, Mitchell was not making excuses for his side's performance.
"It was a very untidy performance from us," he said.
"At the end of the day, I think they won the forward battle. I think it's important to acknowledge when you get beaten and they won the early races and they dig deep when it mattered."
The result leaves the Bulls bottom of the South African Conference, but there is still a long way to go in the competition and with only four points separating the Jaguares in 2nd and the Bulls, it is still wide open.
"I'm sure everybody is going to be fighting to the end," said Mitchell.
"You always look to be there at the end and we're no different, but we're also mindful that we're going through a period of building in a new way."
The Bulls are next in action when they host the Sharks at Loftus on Saturday.
