Nathan Cleary has kicked a penalty goal after the half-time siren to reduce Penrith’s deficit to Melbourne down to four points.
Melbourne had a 20-metre optional restart, and Ryan Papenhuyzen kicked the ball and it bounced out.
That is a Melbourne scrum inside Penrith’s half with 30 seconds to play.
But Penrith challenged the restart, and it showed when Papenhuyzen kicked the ball, left winger Grant Anderson was offside.
That is a penalty.
Melbourne protested that they should be able to just take the restart again, but the letter of the law says it is a penalty.
In fairness, I think this is a rule which has been overlooked in recent years. Too often I see refs make teams do a tap restart again if people are offside.
Is that any different?
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