Although five United Rugby Championship outings have passed without a victory, Ulster head coach Richie Murphy insists his side are not "a million miles away" following Saturday's 33-7 defeat by the Stormers in Cape Town.

Shorn of nine players who joined up with Andy Farrell's Ireland squad before next weekend's Nations Championship opener against Argentina, Ulster were forced to fly in seven reinforcements to South Africa following last week's defeat by the Bulls in Pretoria.

It ensured the task against a side containing Springbok internationals was always going to be difficult, but Ulster battled well early and a David McCann try midway through the opening half offered hope.

Minutes later, they were close to a second only for Cormac Izuchukwu to knock-on at the line which proved a key moment as the Stormers won a series of penalties, culminating in a yellow card for Keynan Knox, before striking twice before the interval.

A third Stormers try six minutes into the second period by Evan Roos, who raced clear after intercepting a loose Matthew Devine pass, made it a two-score game and while the gap was not insurmountable, Ulster were not able to apply any significant pressure.

"I don't think it's one thing, I think it's a lot of everything things, [but] we're not a million miles away," Murphy said of his side's winless start to the URC campaign.

"At 7-0 we have a scrum, we get to a metre out and we just knock the ball on as we're going over the line.

"At [potentially] 14-0 I think the Stormers are in a little bit of pain, but we give away a knock-on there; that scrum ends up being a penalty, the penalty ends up being a line-out, the line-out ends up being a penalty, the next line-out ends up being a penalty and then they score.

"So 14-0 to seven-all, the game changes, a gift before half-time, a gift after half-time and then you're under pressure."

Murphy felt his side looked "a bit tired" in the closing stages as the Stormers put a seal on the game with two late tries.

Injuries to Ethan McIlroy (hand), Ben Donald (Achilles) and Chay Mullins (hip) compounded their woes on a day in which they battled well but were second best across the board.

Handling errors played a part too, but that was also true for the Stormers who were undone by knock-ons in promising positions.

"It's obviously quite warm out there and there is a humidity, so you could feel even before the game, the ball was reasonably slippy," Murphy reflected.

"It's an area of our game that we're trying to work on. We're turning over the ball a little bit too many times.

"Both teams, I thought, in the first half put each other under quite a lot of pressure defensively. Once you're under pressure, you're trying to move the ball to space. It becomes difficult."

Ulster have until 5 December before their next opportunity for an opening league win when they visit Cardiff after the international break.

However, it will not be a case of putting all shoulders to the wheel as their Ireland contingent will be on Nations Championship duty with a further six called into the Ireland XV squad for a clash with Fiji 'A' on 20 November.

"We'll get about two weeks then prep with most of the guys back in but it's been a difficult start to the year in relation to managing," Murphy added.

"We're not used to having 10 Irish players during the summer, how they reintegrated back into our squad over these first five games and now to lose them again puts us under a little bit of pressure."