And the "impact" is arguably negligible. There was only one scrum packed that was uncontested, that scrum was a Sunnybank feed on the Sunnybank side of halfway (on the 10 IIRC) and they opted to kick the ball soon after rather than keep it in hand to grind out the game while they were still 2 points ahead and entering Uni half. If Sunnybank WANTED to get Uni to 13 men while Malouf was off the field they could've knocked the ball on and forced the scrum.
Surely the bigger impact on the game was Sunnybank letting in a try but not scoring points themselves while Uni had a man in the bin for 10 and a player off for a prop for another 5min in the 2nd half?
And as for Colts, Backstrom & the QRU adhered to the competition rules. I personally am frustrated that the ARU says one thing but the comp rules disregard it, but those rules were agreed upon months ago and every single club could've spoken up well before full time in that game and asked the question. As for impact, Brothers didn't have the opportunity to win in extra time, but let's not pretend they were shoo ins to win the game in extra time; they could've just as easily lost anyway. As for the refereeing error (and it absolutely was), they happen, referees are human and that would've really hurt.
Backstrom knows what he's doing and I highly doubt anyone could've run the finals weekend any better.