The Hurricanes had their four-match winning run stopped by the Waratahs in Sydney on Saturday night as a combination of poor defence, sloppy handling and some curious decisions by Walsh saw Mark Hammett's side fall to a 39-30 defeat.
The seventh-placed Hurricanes have travelled to the Victorian capital and turned their attention to meeting the Rebels at AAMI Park on Friday night.
Hammett was set to send an email to Sanzar referees boss Lyndon Bray either last night (mon) or today but it was simply to seek clarification around a few of Walsh's calls rather than launch a formal complaint.
Speculation has swirled around whether TJ Perenara actually delivered any backchat to Walsh following a controversial late knock-on call.
Walsh blew a penalty citing Perenara's dissent, which was converted by Waratahs pivot Bernard Foley and essentially ended any hope of a Hurricanes' comeback and also ensured Hammett's men were unable to claim a bonus point.
Hurricanes assistant coach Alama Ieremia didn't confirm whether Perenara had given Walsh a serve or not but said his side needed to be better behaved.
"It's just one of those scenarios where you've got to actually adjust to the referee," Ieremia said.
"So in a tight scenario like that we've just got to have the discipline to actually control what we can and backchat to the ref ain't going to help the team and it was costly in the end."
Some of Walsh's calls were bizarre such as penalising Hurricanes prop Jeffery Toomaga-Allen at scrum-time for "mucking around" but Ieremia said that wasn't the reason they slipped up in Sydney.
"That's not solely why we lost the game. We certainly didn't help ourselves."
Which brings the focus to Friday night where the Hurricanes need to get back to their winning ways to keep up the pace on a congested Super Rugby ladder.
While the Rebels have only won three from nine this year, they're the stereotypical bogey team and seem to pull off a couple of notable upsets each season.
"We are looking through all the stats from the competition and in every stat they are probably in the top five," Hurricanes hooker Dane Coles said of the Rebels.
The All Black rake's study is correct too. The Rebels win the most rucks per match, have the equal-highest ruck percentage when taking the ball in to contact and have an accurate lineout. They also put up impressive numbers in the tackling department with an 88 per cent efficiency.
Despite some concerns around lock Jeremy Thrush's neck, the five-test All Black has come up well, although more was expected to be known after a thorough assessment last night. The only other ailments among the Hurricanes squad were the usual bumps and bruises.
