Robbievk,
nobody replied to my screaming lol....
However after reading a tutorial from [unknown] somewhere (i can't remember where now sorry), it said about if the file for the theme doesnt exist, then the default theme just gets used instead.
I can't remember exactly what i did, i'll have a look at it again and try and get back to you, but i deleted a file that it used to create the buttons, and it reverted back to use the forum default one... which added the reply button back on the bottom again, but still looks perfectly fine!
James