This was Kiss' side's first league clash since January 2 when they slipped to a narrow defeat to Munster.
Victory lifts them back up to fifth in the standings but Kiss found much for his side to improve on after making hard work of seeing off the winless Italians.
"We didn't play to plan really in that first half," he said.
"Obviously we had a few changes but I would have expected a bit more.
"At half time we had a few words about it but the boys were very honest about what they had not delivered.
"And in the second half, although we didn't start how I would have liked, we eventually got a couple of mauls going, put them under pressure, dominated field and eventually put the points on them - it was pleasing to get the five points."
Braam Steyn got a deserved consolation try for the hosts but it was too little too late and Kiss was impressed by his squad's strength in depth.
"All the bench did really well, overall they were very good for us," he added.
"Second half we needed to respond and we did which was nice.
"I would hope we can take a bit of rhythm from the second half and put it into our first next week.
"We have pushed ourselves back into contention for the top four."
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Guinness PRO12 Ulster News
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