Nonlinear plant and discrete controller in Simulink

Hi. I have simulated the nonlinear dynamics of a Furuta pendulum MATLAB Function block in Simulink. Using the linearized and discretized system, I have designed a controller and I would like to simulate the response of the plant & the controller to torque disturbances (i.e., tapping the pendulum). The system is shown in the attached picture.

My question is, what is the correct way to do this?

Current effort:

Since the plant is in continuous time and the controller is discrete, I believe I need a Zero Order Hold on the input to simulate the fact that the controller commands (as implemented on a microcontroller for example) are constant between the sample times.

But should there be a Zero Order Hold on the sensing side as well? Note that I am estimating the angular velocities with backward difference method.

I should also note that the current response (attached) does make sense to me.