“Being 14 points up, we just needed a couple of clean exits. We couldn’t get any field position and the Chiefs came over the top of us to level things up off the back of our own inability to get out of our own zone.”

NSW back-rower Will Miller was denied a try in the second half, which could have had an impact on the outcome of the match. A Kurtley Beale pass was deemed to have gone forward and Gibson questioned whether the right call had been made.

“We felt the forward pass was borderline for us [and] at least deserved a review,” Gibson said. “That’s rugby. You get some of those, sometimes you don’t. Credit to the Chiefs.”

After one of the most entertaining Super Rugby fixtures of the season, captain Michael Hooper said he was proud of the fight his men put in but conceded the Chiefs were too good in certain areas.

“The Chiefs came at us really hard, we couldn’t slow their ball down," Hooper said. "In the second half it was a lot of back and forth. I thought the Chiefs controlled the game really well.”

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The Waratahs have a week to prepare for their final match before the June Test window, against the Queensland Reds.

The Reds went down 18-15 to the Highlanders on Saturday evening despite being level until Lima Sopoaga's 78th minute penalty.

After three near-misses from their last four matches against Kiwi sides, Gibson was optimistic about how his team were tracking.

“We’re close ... we’re competing," Gibson said. "To come so close and yet still be not where we want to be [is pleasing]. There’s plenty there to work on. We had no problems scoring tries, we’ve got to really work on preventing them.”