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For the first time in rugby league history, a captain’s challenge system will be will be trialled in the NRL this weekend during the St George Illawarra vs Newcastle game.
In a limited set of circumstances, captains can challenge the decision of a referee, sending it to the bunker. The decisions a captain can challenge, however, are restricted to those around try-scoring.
A captain will only be able to challenge a referee’s decision to award try or no try, but tries will only be sent up to the bunker if a challenge is initiated.
Referees during this game will no longer have the safety net of sending it to the bunker, and will be required to then make a call on the field. The captain of either team can then challenge that call, which will then send the decision up to the bunker.
Each team will be given one incorrect challenge a half, but the challenge will remain if the referral to the bunker proves the captain correct.
As far as we can work out, the challenges won’t ‘stack’, so if you’ve still got your incorrect challenge from the first half, it won’t carry over into the second, giving you two.
There will also be an additional challenge given in the last five minutes of play and the in golden point.
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said the game had been considering a captain’s challenge system for several years, but did not previously have the technology to be confident the correct decision would be delivered.
“However, the bunker gives us the opportunity to trial the captain’s challenge with state of the art technology to help determine whether a try has been scored,” Mr Greenberg said.
“We will assess the trial to determine if there is scope to use the captain’s challenge more widely in the future.”
On the weekend, however, the bunker can be utilised by the on-field referee for 40/20 rulings, line drop outs and 20-metre restarts, foul play, double knock-on rulings and to determine which team touched the ball last before going over the touchline.
NRL Head of Football, Brian Canavan thanked the Dragons and Knights for agreeing to trial the captain’s challenge during a regular round match.
“This will give us a chance to evaluate the captain’s challenge in a live NRL game where teams are still playing for two competition points,” he said.
With nothing at stake for either side, as both are out of the finals race, it makes sense to trial this initiative here.
How the Captain’s Challenge will work:
– Can only be used to challenge a try or no-try ruling
– Captains will have 20 seconds following a try/no-try decision to challenge the decision.
– No replays either at normal speed or in slow motion, will be shown on a big screen at the ground until the time allowed for requesting of a captain’s challenge has elapsed.
– A captain may request a review of any try/point-scoring decision made by an on-field official in relation to: groundings, knock-ons, obstruction, double movement, offside, touchline /touch-in-goal/dead-in-goal, tackle in the air, steals involving two or more defenders, foul play, as well as goals and field goals.
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