"You flip like a girl," laughed Paul Sackey as Joe Simpson dived to catch the pancake I was flipping at around shin-height. The pair, despite looking ridiculous in yellow hard hats - which no-one at the Kindness Offensive who had teamed up with Childline to help raise awareness of their kick bullying into touch campaign could really explain - were taking their task and act of kindness of making free pancakes very seriously.

Despite arriving soaked to the skin, after admitting defeat to the London traffic and walking the last part of the journey Sackey and Simpson were very enthusiastic about their cooking and in particular their flipping (see video below); neither though, were quite as excited by the prospect of having to give something up for a month.

Flipping marvels: Gail, Joe Simpson and Paul Sackey slave over the hot-plate

Sackey is kicking dessert eating into touch, so as a lovely gesture the lady at Premier Rugby, Laura, gave him a selections of cakes to enjoy as part of his last supper which included some French Fancies. I know, I can't believe they still make them either and yes, they still look like they could glow in the dark! It took a while but we did get a laugh from Paul.

But it seems saying au revoir to Wasps is a touchy subject. Sackey maintains he isn't going for the money, he says at 30 he needs of a new challenge. There are a number of deals on the table but admits he's very close to committing his future to one - and the smart money is on him joining Jonny Wilkinson at Toulon. If ever there was a rugby player (he lists fashion and cars as his hobby) who was made for life in St Tropez, it's him. I dread to think how many Ferraris he might be adding to his collection during his time in France.

Brilliantly

Sackey is desperate to finish his Wasps career on a high and anybody who might have doubted his commitment to the club would have been reassured when the winger sent Charlie Hodgson absolutely flying with a try-saving tackle in the club's weekend win over Sale: "I love Charlie but that was a good one wasn't it?" he said with a smile.

Wasps, despite the horrible conditions did, during moments on Sunday, look a real threat. Sackey, Tom Varndell and man of the match Ben Jacobs combined brilliantly at times and Danny Cipriani punished Sale's indiscipline - the fly-half kicked six from six on his return to the starting line-up.

The endless stories over Cipriani's future keep rumbling along, the Wasps director of rugby says the saga will be concluded very soon, not soon enough for most. It seems a straight choice between staying put or heading down under and turning his back on England.

There seems to be a definite split in opinion regarding Cipriani; there is the camp that says he should stop sulking, get on with it and prove he's worthy of wearing the England shirt. Then there are those that wouldn't blame him for heading to Australia, after all England don't seem too fussed by his talent. Then there is Will Carling who seemed in it for the free publicity. Carling says he's scrapped plans for managing the 22-year-old because "he wasn't passionate enough about playing for England" - comments both Hanks and Shaun Edwards (who was still in a state of shock after Wales' dramatic victory over Scotland the day before) weren't impressed with and dismissed angrily.

After the game at Adams Park, Sale's director of rugby Kingsley Jones was very vocal in his disappointment of referee Rob Debney's performance. It wasn't a rant of the Brendan Venter proportions but he was pretty angry. e felt the official had contributed to the result. He wasn't pleased that a forward pass by Varndell wasn't spotted in the build-up to Jacobs' try and Jones was particularly unhappy at the sin binning of Effon Lewis-Roberts who he claims took the ball cleanly: "You want the referees to get the basic decisions right."

Colourful

The sin-binning didn't prove too costly to Sale but refereeing was a reoccurring theme of my weekend. At Wembley on Saturday I sat behind the Worcester director of rugby Mike Ruddock, which was an interesting experience, not just for the colourful language which he apologised for afterwards, but because you witness the frustration and desperation close-up -especially when decisions aren't going his team's way.

Ruddock's notes on the game began in a neat orderly fashion and by the end of match it was a sprawling mass of arrows and underlining as he grew more and more troubled by what he was seeing. Worcester were excellent in patches and played some great rugby, it's amazing to think they're second from bottom and it won't get any easier for them with a game away at Bath, a side that since the return of Butch James have found some form. Talking of returns, Olly Barkley who has yet to feature for Bath since he rejoined the club from Gloucester last summer, is hoping to be on the bench for the game having finally recovered from a broken leg.

Elsewhere last weekend Chris Ashton further enhanced his claims to win a first England cap by scoring twice against Newcastle. That takes the winger's tally to 11 in the Premiership (five more than his closest rival) and 18 for the season. Northampton and Ashton must be rubbing their hands together as they prepare to take on a Harlequins defence that leaked 46 points last weekend at Gloucester.

Alarming

This weekend is also huge for London Irish, well beaten by Bath in the last round after a series of first-half mistakes, (which included letting David Barnes look like a world-class winger), and with only the Premiership title to aim for, their season is in fear of unravelling at an alarming rate. They will at least have the services of Paul Hodgson and Steffon Armitage, who have been released by England for the trip to Newcastle. If they don't win Irish could drop out of a play-off spot as the race to Twickenham heats up.

Finally, Richard Cockerill will have to find a new 'excuse' if his side underperforms this weekend. Cockerill, the head coach at Leicester, got involved in a war of words with his former Tigers team-mate Neil Back, now head coach at Leeds. Cockerill said the Leeds pitch 'was as bad as I have seen in a decade' before adding 'if you want to play top-end sport you have to have surfaces better than that'.

Back was unimpressed and accused his opposite number of 'making excuses' and as far as the worst pitch in a decade, he said it was absolute rubbish: "I've played on worse and Richard was there too on my team." Leicester are at Welford Road this weekend against a resurgent Gloucester team that will be looking to become the first side to win at the Tigers since Wasps managed it in September 2008.

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