The Highlanders have slumped to their fourth defeat of the Super Rugby season to remain firmly rooted to the bottom of the New Zealand conference.
Photo: Backpagepix 2020
They have been overrun by the previously winless Bulls in Pretoria, surrendering a 10-5 halftime lead to lose 38-13.
"We'll learn some lessons from our second half," Highlanders co-captain Aaron Smith told South African broadcaster SuperSport.
"Our first half we felt like we controlled the game. We were able to build pressure, keep that territory battle, we were winning that, but we needed to capitalise on more points for the amount of time we spent in their half and 22."
Rosko Specman led the Bulls' second-half resurgence, scoring a hat-trick of tries, while Warrick Gelant, Cornal Hendricks and Jaco Visagie also dotted down for the hosts.
"Just some errors at critical set pieces. We'd done the work on defence to get the ball back and then were muck up our set piece or our attack and you can't do that at Loftus and the Bulls punished us for that," Smith said.
"The way they played today in spreading the ball, spreading us out and you know they've got some dangerous backs and we saw what happens if we get it wrong."
Josh Ioane scored all of the Highlanders' points, including their first half try.
The result leaves the southerners eight points adrift at the bottom of the New Zealand conference.
They will now travel to Argentina to face the Jaguares next week.
The Jaguares were earlier beaten 33-19 by the Sharks in Durban.
The Sharks now lead the South African conference, three points clear of the Stormers and five ahead of the Argentinian side.
The Lions now sit fifth, a point behind the Bulls, following their 37-17 defeat to the Rebels in Melbourne.