Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson expects Crusaders prop Joe Moody to come under SANZAAR scrutiny, for a high shot on Kurtley Beale.
The Waratahs lost to the Crusaders by two points, and Moody collected Beale with a high elbow in the phases preceding his 35th minute try.
Referee Ben O’Keeffe missed the hit and TMO Aaron Paterson didn’t intervene at the time, but the moment was picked up on the broadcast coverage.
Gibson said he expected SANZAAR to look at Moody’s hit on Beale, despite it going unpunished in the game.
“I thought the Joe Moody incident with the elbow, the referee's missed (that),in my book it's an elbow to the head, I'm sure the powers (that) be will be looking at that,” he said.
Gibson said he was proud of the way his team fought against some adversity, with the Waratahs spending 20 minutes a player down with yellow cards to Nick Phipps and Taqele Naiyaravoro.
Injuries and early replacements also hurt the Waratahs, with Damien Fitzpatrick and Will Miller off for head checks and Ned Hanigan forced off, leaving replacement prop Harry Johnson-Holmes to pack down as a flanker in the final 20 minutes.
“I'm incredibly proud of our team,” Gibson said.
“At the end there, we had no locks, we had a prop in the front of the scrum. WE can go away and be proud of our effort and disappointed that we've let one slip.”
The Waratahs mentor also took a thinly-veiled swipe at the external commentators, who have criticised Australian rugby as it continues a 0-39 drought against New Zealand teams.
“I think we'll go away with our heads held high here and disappointed we didn't do better,” he said.
“We go away with a loser’s bonus point, but it could've been a lot more.
“It's important we frame that for ourselves and the fact that two weeks in a row, all the media saying Australian teams can't compete with New Zealand teams, and we should've probably won.
“We've got another two to go, pick ourselves up and get back out there.”
Gibson said he wasn't surprised to see his team up by 29 points after less than half an hour, but felt the Crusaders were able to tighten up their execution as the game went on.
"You saw it in the first 20 minutes, the Crusaders were making a lot of errors, a lot of errors,very unusual," he said.
"Then we forced them into a possession game and they were very good at that - they scored three really good tries off their lineout platform, which we knew was very strong, but I thought we tested them, we pushed them to places they probably didn't want to go tonight and that's a good thing.
"I felt disappointed for our team, because I felt we probably should've won the game."
The Waratahs head back to Australia on Sunday, ahead of a clash with the Highlanders at Allianz Stadium next Saturday night.
