What former Springbok coach NICK MALLETT had to say on SuperSport about Saturday's matches at Ellis Park and Loftus Versfeld.

ELLIS PARK

'[Referee] Stuart Berry spent his entire second half looking only at the Reds. I have to agree with Naas [Botha], who has just said that the Lions haven’t always got the referee decisions in the past but they got it all in one game today. The Reds have every reason to feel aggrieved.

'My feeling was that Berry was very flustered in the end and that he was only looking at the Reds errors. He penalised the Reds with four minutes to go at scrum, which was never a penalty. He then allowed a skew lineout throw with two minutes to go and gave a try when the grounding was inconclusive.

'It was a shocking performance.'

LOFTUS

'It was a typical South African derby. The first 40 minutes were a kick-fest and it wasn’t enjoyable to watch. These were two typical South African teams. They rely on forward dominance and not on their backs and in the first half the two packs cancelled each other out. It was a game of errors more than one of good play.

'The Bulls tried briefly to play expansively but did not have the skills among their backs. They had a four-on-two situation in attack and botched it. Frans Steyn’s long-kicking game has been very good for the Sharks and he kicked very well.

'From a conference point of view, the Sharks won’t be too damaged. They have won four in succession at home and they did get an away bonus point.

'Losing both starting halfbacks in the first five minutes had an impact on the Sharks and replacement flyhalf Tim Swiel didn’t have the confidence in his debut to take the responsibility. He passed and kicked too early.

'It is a misnomer that the Sharks play expansive rugby. Apart from the scrumming at the end when the changes had been made, the Sharks never looked as if they dominated.'

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