EVERY now and then the NRL will throw up a moment that we all thought had long been driven out of the game. This penalty was one of those moments.

As Sunday afternoon’s clash between Penrith and Parramatta headed towards a tense conclusion the Panthers had a scrum feed in prime attacking position.

What happened next should forever sit in a dictionary next to the term ‘coach killer’.

As young halfback Nathan Cleary fed the scrum, referee Ben Cummins blew his whistle and extended his left arm to signal a Parramatta penalty much to the confusion of many watching the game, both at the ground and on their televisions at home.

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Click on the player above to watch the bizarre penalty play!

It soon came to light that the penalty was awarded against the Panthers because they had packed the scrum with only five players — two props, a hooker, a lock and a second rower.

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The absence of a sixth player — the other second rower — meant that the penalty was correctly awarded, although in modern rugby league referees have a tendency to instruct the offending team that they need an extra player packing in and would reset the scrum once that was rectified.

Social media was abuzz with reaction to the scrum penalty, with many fans delighting at the referee’s decision and a return to the days when players weren’t coddled by the officials.

A dipsy doodle AND s scrum penalty in the one game? @GibsMoore what are the odds — hung parliamentarian (@Top_level_Ted) July 17, 2016

Scrum penalty hahaha rugby league — Simon (@simonil97) July 17, 2016

SCRUM PENALTY? Only 5 in the scrum. Concentrate! #PantherPride — QLDPanthers (@QldPanthers) July 17, 2016

That was the take of Fox Sports commentator Andrew Voss who raised his glass of water on Sunday Ticket to toast the gutsy call made by Cummins.

“I would be asking you to charge your glasses and toast the referees today for ruling a scrum penalty,” Voss said with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

“This is a great moment. I tire of referees calling out, ‘you’ve got to get a sixth player into the scrum’, teaching, instructing teams how to pack scrums.

“Penrith only had five in the scrum there — bloody well penalise them. And they did! And they did!

“Don’t tell them what to do, just penalise them.”

The writer is on Twitter @glover—benny

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