Michael Foley's Western Force have looked desperately out of sorts recently © Getty Images

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After a very ordinary start to the Super Rugby season, I'm very happy to report that Round 3 served up a perfect www.footytips.com.au scorecard and nothing but green lights for your humble correspondent. I would, however, ask that you don't look too closely at any other results you may see bearing my name.

But it was that sort of round, wasn't it. Four of the seven losing teams picked up bonus points for margins of fewer than seven points, and the Lions and Rebels had one last crack at victory that lasted for several minutes beyond the final siren. I did tip the Bulls in the Scrum preview and on Footytips, but I had the Sharks in other comps and forums; and I wasn't confident about either tip.

The round 3 results confirm this Super Rugby season may well be the closest yet. How many teams that you had given little chance to now sit in the top six? Yeah, me too. And we're in for more surprises and tipping heartache before the season's done, I'm quite sure.

Here a few things that stood out in Round 3.

Could the Western Force pack cost Michael Foley a Wallabies job?

Before the weekend's action kicked off, the Australian Rugby Union announced that Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham would be joining Michael Cheika's Wallabies coaching staff, taking care of attack, and that Waratahs defence coach Nathan Grey would also continue in that role with the Test team as he did on the end-of-year tour to Europe late last year.

There was no great surprise in either appointment, or even that incumbent set-piece coach Andrew Blades would be moving on from the role he had also held under Robbie Deans and Ewen McKenzie.

The only real surprise last Friday was that Western Force coach Michael Foley wasn't also metaphorically unveiled. Cheika made no secret of his approach to Foley when he was hurriedly appointed last October, and Foley himself spoke of being flattered and honoured to be asked as recently as the Force's Round 1 win over the Waratahs.

And there's any number of reasons why Foley hasn't been confirmed yet. For one thing, while the ARU were making the announcement, Foley was readying his team for a literal battering from the Hurricanes. With the Force dropping almost every skerrick of form with which they started the season, it's entirely possible Foley delayed any decisions and/or confirmation until his side has the bye in Round 8, over the Easter weekend.

On current form, the bye can't come quick enough for the Force; after tackling the Brumbies in Canberra this week and hosting the Rebels the next, they then head to Africa to face the Bulls and the Sharks. And it's this tough ask over the next month, as well as the dramatic capitulation of the Force scrum against the Hurricanes that made me wonder if there's another reason why Foley's set-piece credentials haven't yet received the Cheika stamp of approval.

The Force lost three of seven scrums on their own feed and never looked like taking one off the rampant Canes; and it was a similar story the week before in Brisbane. Scrum success rates of 75% and 57% in successive weeks do not make good reading for an aspirant set-piece coach.

Foley may yet still get the gig; indeed, it might already be a done deal. But his team can also do him a massive favour with a vastly improved scrum over the rest of the season.

TMO try over-rulings may or may not be OK

Confusion reigned in Melbourne on Saturday night, when Brumbies flanker Jarrad Butler thought he'd scored a rare double, against the Rebels. Having scored from the back of a driving maul in the 59th minute, the Brumbies repeated the dose seven minutes later when Butler again crashed over while Rebels skipper Scott Higginbotham was in the sin bin. Steve Walsh was on the spot, and awarded the try immediately with no extra assistance required. Before Christian Leali'ifano could take the conversion, however, TMO Peter Marshall spied something on the replay. Taking a closer look, Marshall advised Walsh that Butler had lost the ball in the grounding and the try shouldn't stand.

Both teams looked more than a bit bemused at what had happened, and in radio commentary I had to admit that I couldn't ever recall such an event happening - or even if the TMO could overturn a try that had already been awarded.

Follow-up enquiries of SANZAR this week pointed to a World Rugby "internal review" made last November to allow such an overrule, but the body's Laws of the Game web pages carry no such update. On the Laws pages, you can see what the TMO can rule on under Law 6 'Match Officials'. Additionally, links to download the full TMO Protocols document from the site were broken at the time of investigation and publication of the article.

The TMO wasn't required for for Tevita Kuridrani's five-pointer © Getty Images

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Further enquires of World Rugby about the existence of such a review or Law Clarification were initially met with "belief" that an overrule was permissible before the conversion. But further pressing for something a little more concrete than belief drew short shrift: "It is [allowed] up until the conversion is taken," came the reply.

For the record, the Crusaders had a try overturned by the TMO in a match against the Lions in April last year, on the recommendation of a second look by the assistant referee, and Aviva Premiership club Saracens had a try overturned by TMO in a match against Northampton a month later.

SANZAR game manager Lyndon Bray would ultimately clear up the confusion, confirming to ESPN that the change was made in the TMO Protocols themselves in November. Ahead of the Tests late last year, the opportunity was taken to allow the TMO to make such an overrule.

Along similar lines to how a foul play incident can be reviewed at any point up until play resumes, tries awarded incorrectly can also be overturned up to the point of play resuming, which in the case of a try being awarded is the attempt of conversion.

So there are two avenues of confusion here.

First, the fact that the use of the TMO is not something covered by an actual Law kind of flies in the face of suggestions that every decision made on the field is covered by a Law.

Secondly, and by follow-on, if the governing body of the game can't point to the relevant piece of information, what hope does the average fan in the stands or on the couch have?

The Ominous Chiefs; discuss ...

You might recall me mention the Chiefs last week playing the Brumbies almost nothing like they did against the Blues the week before, and that it seemed strange that Aaron Cruden seemed to be ignoring Charlie Ngatai at 12 in the absence of Sonny Bill Williams.

Well, my thoughts seem trivial now, after Cruden and Williams combined to tear the Crusaders apart on Saturday in Hamilton. From an even share of possession, the Chiefs made six clean breaks, beat 16 defenders and got 25 offloads away. And for good measure, they won scrums against the feed, stole lineouts, and tackled with a success rate of 93%. Say it with me now, DEM-OH-LISH-ON!

The Highlanders are not a bad side, but I fear for their safety on Friday evening.