Although the Springboks have since relocated to Wales for the second leg of their European tour, a simmering row has continued between the tourists and their Irish hosts arising from comments made by the South African captain Andre Vos at Sunday night's post-match banquet in the Berkeley Court Hotel.

Although generally expressing his and the Springboks' contentment with the hospitality afforded them in Limerick and Dublin throughout last week, Vos added that they had rarely experienced such "an unsporting" gesture as when they were asked to end their training session and leave the Lansdowne Road main pitch at 11.30 on Saturday morning.

Although Keith Wood declined to make any reference to the matter in his speech, IRFU officials, management and players alike were infuriated by what they perceived as the ungracious remarks by Vos, which could have been made through more private channels.

According to the IRFU, the Springboks had been given first option on booking Lansdowne Road, and had done so from 10.00 to 11.30 but, having apparently not turned up until 10.45, were still on the pitch after 11.30 with no sign of them vacating it with the Irish squad already present. At this point Peter Clohessy and another Irish player asked them to leave.

"The IRFU was taken aback by the comment," admitted the union's press officer, John Redmond.

"Firstly, because of its inappropriateness in the social context in which it was made and also because of the factual inaccuracy of the account by the South African captain. Immediately on Vos's comments, the SARFU president Silas Nkanunu proffered an apology which he repeated many times over."

IRFU officials present on Sunday night expressed their displeasure to the SARFU chief executive Rian Oberlitzter and it is believed that he indicated before the team's departure to Wales that there would be a written apology to the IRFU.

To compound Irish anger over the matter, Vos also added that when Ireland visited South Africa two years ago they were "afforded every hospitality". It may interest Vos to know that on that tour, the Irish had to wait five days for a scrum machine of requisite standard after repeated requests for one. But most annoyingly, they were kept outside the ground for 10 minutes in the team coach prior to the first Test in Bloemfontein, supposedly because no-one had the keys to the gates. While waiting on board, they had to endure verbal abuse outside the ground. In general, the Irish party felt aggrieved by the South Africans' repeated failure to pronounce names correctly, while recalling how cocktail sausages and finger foods were the height of their culinary experiences at stand-up post-match buffets, prompting one player to observe on Sunday night that the Springbok party received more food in one sitting than the Irish did in their entire four-week tour in South Africa three summers ago.

As for public address pleas for silence to be observed while place-kicks were being taken, as was the case at Lansdowne Road, we'll leave that one to the imagination.

Another controversy arising from Sunday's game was the vexed ruling on the five-metre scrum to South Africa after Percy Montgomery's first-half penalty had hit the upright before rebounding off Ed Morrison whereupon the ball ricocheted off the diving Pieter Rossouw and the boot of Rob Henderson over the dead-ball line.

Subsequent re-viewing of the match tape failed to clarify the matter, without recourse to slow-motion replays from a camera positioned behind the goal. This was particularly ironic given that a referral to a "video referee" had ascertained the legitimacy of Dan Luger's match-winning injury-time try for England against Australia the day before.

Alas, no such facility exists at Lansdowne Road, an IRFU spokesperson explaining that the costs of additional personnel, office space, cameras, technology and so forth are prohibitive. Furthermore, such ambiguity is likely to continue during the Six Nations.

The use of video referees is still at an experimental stage, so not all unions have to use one. An International Board spokesperson confirmed yesterday that all unions merely have to report to the IRB Council in time for the board's a.g.m. in Copenhagen in March "and then the Council will decide whether a ruling is to be made".