Kurtley Beale is adamant that he did not deliberately knock down a pass from Stefan Terblanche to Ryan Kankowski which prevented the Sharks from scoring what might have been a match-winning try against the Waratahs.
Beale got his hand to the ball as the Sharks were attacking with an overlap and trailing 25-21 with three minutes to go.
Referee Paul Marks sent Beale to the sin-bin for deliberately knocking the ball down and ignored pleas from Sharks' players to award a penalty try even though the Sharks were not in the Waratahs 25 yet.
"I just saw it was two-on-one and tried to go for the intercept and hit the ball up," Beale told The Daily Telegraph of the moment that saw him sent to the sin-bin for the first time in his career.
"I was a little anxious and frustrated, but the boys dug deep and hopefully we can learn from that," said Beale.
Beale's emotions turned to excitement and relief at full-time.
"If I hadn't hit the ball up, it was going to be a try and it would have been a totally different story," he said.
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