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Cape Town - Waratahs captain Michael Hooper believes losing momentum cost his side dearly in Sunday's 41-22 loss to the Crusaders in Sydney.
Despite playing catch-up to the seven-time champions throughout, the Waratahs were still in the game, trailing 26-22 in the 55th minute but the visitors proved too strong in the end.
“When we do get the momentum, (it’s) capitalising on that," said Hooper.
“That’s the biggest growth for us and that’s what we need to work on.”
Waratahs head coach Daryl Gibson echoed Hooper's sentiments and pin-pointed where the opportunity to turn the game over went begging.
“We got ourselves back in the game… we were right back up in their area putting them under pressure”, he said.
“I thought at times our intent and our defensive pressure was very good. We were getting up and really causing some havoc.
“Taqele (Naiyaravoro) came on, and he got us back in the game.
“The momentum really swung at that point and that’s the disappointing thing that we failed to capitalisze on the first time in the game we had some real pressure on them.”
