You can't see the bigger picture but try taking one bit on faith.

The Highlanders attack with backs and forwards mixed.  Right wing Ben Smith passes to flank George Whitelock who gives to flank  John Hardie. Hardie knocks on into the hands of Riaan Viljoen, the Cheetahs' fullback who hoofs the ball a long way down field as Whitelock dumps him. The referee blows his whistle and brings them back for a scrum to the Cheetahs.

The crowd are upset because they would have liked to see rapid Jongi Nokwe chase after the ball as it rolled through empty acres.

It seemed that the referee had not played advantage.

He did play advantage but as soon as Viljoen kicked, the referee spotted Nokwe ahead of Viljoen, in other words offside.

The referee has a choice - scrum to Cheetahs or penalty to Highlanders.

Clearly the Cheetahs had not had the sort of tactical advantage which would have allowed them to choose how they wanted to play. They did not have tactical advantage. When Nokwe was offside the referee could not let play go on. He had to stop it at the place where Nokwe started running forward.

The referee was right to award a scrum to the Cheetahs.