Ashwin Willemse, Nick Mallett and Naas Botha have spoken publicly for the first time since Saturday night’s drama on the SuperSport set following the end of the Lions v Brumbies game in Johannesburg.

In scenes that have now been seen hundreds of thousands of times around South Africa, a clearly upset Willemse left the live set while suggesting that Mallett and Botha had patronised him continuously.

Willemse had said that he could no longer work with his two colleagues and left.

Since then, the South African public has been divided in its opinion of what transpired with race a common feature of the conversation.

A meeting was held at the SuperSport offices on Monday that was attended by all three men as well as anchor Motshidisi Mohono.

The meeting provided no finality, with SuperSport saying that they needed to conduct further investigations into the incident, but all of Willemse, Mallett and Botha gave a single comment following its completion.

“We had robust discussions in which I aired my views. I’m very appreciative of the process undertaken by SuperSport. The complexity of the issues is very profound,” said Willemse.

Mallett, who had to leave the meeting to catch a flight, acknowledged that there were things that needed to be further understood.

“I appreciated the opportunity to air my views. Clearly there are issues that must be grappled with. I am more than happy to collaborate and contribute to resolving this matter,” he said.

“This was a first meeting and we all had our say, which was helpful. We’ve invested in a process to resolve matters and I’m confident that we will get a satisfactory resolution,” added Naas Botha.

No time frame has been set for a follow-up meeting.