You can argue the call on whether the penalty was warranted or not, but the comment, "for something that is identical to every second play the ball in every Nrl game," is not true.
The urgency of a marker rushing from the play the ball directly to a wide ball receiver (as opposed to dummy half going for a squirt) to stop a movement, only usually happens in situations like last night when the defence is trying to shut down a field goal ( or obvious play). It is problematic for the refs as the defender is obviously cutting a fine line in regard to being positioned correctly and leaving as early as possible to shut down the play. Think it would have looked like a penalty to the ref in real time play and to be fair, doubt if a player marking up properly would be able to get there that quick, (although also understand the school of thought that the player playing the ball may not have been straight!)
