24/07/2022
In what may be a world first, an NRL referee appears to have bent the space-time continuum to his will in this afternoon's fixture between the North Queensland Cowboys and the Wests Tigers. With just one second remaining on the clock, the Cowboys restarted play with a kick off that was safely fielded by Tigers fullback Daine Laurie that should have seen a end to the day’s proceedings.
However, rather than blowing fulltime, referee Chris Butler spent the following twenty seconds or so wandering somewhat aimlessly about the playing field with a finger in his ear before offering Cowboys captain Chad Townsend an unprompted opportunity to challenge his decision to not award an es**rt penalty as play unfolded. Following Townsend’s acceptance of the invitation to challenge the absence of a ruling of an es**rt penalty, referee Butler then did what many would argue impossible. Using a form of technology previously only thought to be available to Christopher Lloyd and Skynet, Butler raised his hands to the sky, bending time to his will to signal “time off” on a match clock that had already expired 26 seconds earlier when Daine Laurie caught the Cowboys kick off.
With the course of time rewritten, Butler referred Townsend’s captain’s challenge to video referee, Ashley Klein for analysis. Klein did not take long to rule that Butler had erred by not having awarded the es**rt penalty, duly awarding a penalty to the Cowboys. The Cowboys sealed victory with a Val Holmes penalty goal, leaving the Rugba League community wondering what else the referees plan to do with their new found time travel abilities.
