* Surprise, surprise, George Ayoub was in the middle of the hubbub alongside local Pretoria video referee Linston Manuels when they somehow ruled out a kosher try to wing Akona Ndugane who flopped on a loose ball with his chest.
* Manuels got a clear view of the incident and
then ruled a 22 dropout. Twin errors according to top South African officials leaving really thin blue air on the high veldt.
* Referee Stu Dickinson was close to breaking point at Carisbrook but chose the whistle instead of the cards meaning this latest round was the first sinbin-free weekend this season.
* A yarn in South African rugby circles about the Ndungane twins - Akona at the Bulls and Odwa at the Sharks - suggests that when the talent scouting was being done a few years back, the Sharks were sold a dud line and got the inferior wing.
* It would have been a small party at Tony Brown's after the former Highlander-turned-Shark returned to taunt his old mates at a sparsely populated Carisbrook.
* The take-that award for the weekend came from Cheetahs first five-eighths Meyer Bosman who was criticised for his lack of goalkicking prowess. Eight penalties and a sideline conversion was a pretty sharp riposte.
* Are the Waratahs going to ignore any development programme in favour of flogging league talent? The latest speculation on the Waratahs has Mark Gasnier switching codes to join Mat Rogers, Lote Tuqiri and Wendell Sailor as sky blue converts.
