Curling isn’t normally the place for controversy at the Winter Olympics, but if it's intrigue, ethics and scandal you want, there's only one place to be.

It’s little surprise a sport that is this popular in Canada is so ultra-polite – it’s almost as if minding your manners is part of the rule book.

It started with talk of "burned rocks", the term applied to a stone that has been accidentally touched by an opponent's foot or broom.

When burned rocks occur, the opposing team has three choices: ignore it, rearrange the stones to a position they think is fair or remove the stone from play.

The latter is the nuclear option and, to mix your metaphors, it's just not cricket. But Canadian skip Rachel Homan took it in a match against Denmark –and the purists are not amused, igniting social media in their condemnation of a win-at-all-costs attitude that is frankly unbecoming.

Usually that would be as dramatic as it got, but British skip Eve Muirhead then found herself at the centre of a controversial decision that potentially leaves her medal ambitions in the balance.

Muirhead had taken gold medal favourites Sweden to an extra-end but, as she delivered Britain’s final crucial stone, the lights on the handle flashed to indicate she’d not released the rock before the red "hog line" – curling’s equivalent of a no-ball.

Muirhead protested her innocence but it was too late, with Sweden securing an 8-6 victory with a free shot.

It’s a defeat that leaves her rink with three wins from six and no margin for error in their remaining three group games.

“It is the first stone I think I have hogged in my life and I guess when it comes at a time like that it is horrible,” she said.

“When something like that happens, it makes it very tough to take and it’s gutting it finished that way.

“But it just makes it worse when you see it and it doesn’t look like it is but it does come down, I guess, to inches and millimetres.

“I guess when you see the replays and it looks like all the ones before it, it is hard to take.

“We did get the stone tested and the stone is fine so there is nothing we can do. We have to move on.”

However, Muirhead didn’t appear to have forgotten the issue and later broke her self-enforced Twitter ban to post a picture, which she believed showed her releasing the stone in time.

Tennis, rugby and even football have embraced video technology, but despite scores of cameras covering every available angle at these Games, curling’s governing body won’t budge.

“The decision has been made and the players signed off on the score, let’s move on,” insisted British team head coach Anthony Zummack.

“Personally, I think Eve double touched the stone but there’s no replay rule and speculation is pointless. I hear people talking about video replays but I don’t think it’s practical. Eve needs to focus on the rest of her games now.”

And still the drama wasn’t over. By the end of the day reports were emerging that the bronze medallist in the mixed doubles had failed an initial drugs test.

In a potential major blow to Russia's efforts to emerge from a drug-cheating scandal, and potentially march under their own flag at Sunday’s closing ceremony, Alexander Krushelnitsky was reported to have tested positive for Meldonium, the same drug used by tennis star Maria Sharapova.

Krushelnitsky won bronze with his wife Anastasia Bryzgalovoy competing as neutral Russian athletes, but could now have some questions to answer at home.

“I hope it’s not true, for the sport of curling,” said Norwegian team skipper Thomas Ulsrud.

“If it’s true I feel really sad for the Norwegian team who worked really hard and ended up in fourth place and just left for Norway and they aren’t even here.”

At least there was no scandal for men’s skip Kyle Smith but there was certainly drama, as he held his nerve with the final stone of an extra end to secure a much-needed win over Italy.

“I didn’t have a lot of confidence and that was one of my worst games of the week,” he said.

“I thought about all the times I’ve thrown that shot in practice and tried to stay in the moment and get my weight right.

“It was a must-win match to stay in contention with some of the other teams and a couple more wins and things will be looking really good.”

Catch Eve take on Switzerland live on the Eurosport Player today at 11am. Don’t miss a moment of the Olympic Winter Games at Eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport app