Graham Annesley has used his weekly football briefing to clarify Ryan Papenhuyzen was allowed to take a shot at penalty goal during the Melbourne Storm's big win over the Penrith Panthers on Sunday.
Confusion reigned at the time as he came onto the field, at the back end of the first half, with a captains challenge handing a penalty to the Storm, before time was blown off ahead of Papenhuyzen lining up the kick.
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Annesley revealed the officials stopped the game to clarify with the bunker that Papenhuyzen could take the kick.
Under the international rules of the game, a player must be on the field at the instant of a penalty being blown to be able to take the penalty goal.
Rule 2 states:
"If an interchange is affected when a kick at goal is to be taken, the interchange player shall not be allowed to take the kick."
Papenhuyzen was replacing Nicho Hynes who had split goal-kicking duties up until that point with Cameron Munster.
Annesley confirmed that, using a split screen, Papenhuyzen made it onto the field just a handful of seconds before the penalty was blown.
"I applauded the officials for blowing a time out and having the bunker review to make sure Ryan could take this kick," Annesley said.
"Although it's a very close thing in terms of timing, there is no breach of the rule. He was on the field when the referee blew the penalty. If he was still on the sideline when the penalty was blown, he wouldn't have been able to take the kick. It was only a matter of metres, but that's why they a) checked it and b) why he was allowed to take the kick."
The Storm ran away with the contest, getting the better of the Panthers 37 points to 10.
