Captain’s Challenge is being introduced into rugby league for the 2025 Super League season.
The Rugby Football League announced in December that the system, which has been in operation in Australia for five years and was used during the last edition of the Rugby League World Cup, will be introduced for televised fixtures so that teams can contest on-field decisions made by the referee.
During a stoppage in play after an intervention by the referee, a team’s captain has 10 seconds to decide whether or not to challenge the decision, referring it to the video referee for a second opinion.
Replays of the incident will then be viewed by the video referee and shown on television coverage. After consulting the replays, the video referee will decide whether to stick with the referee’s original decision or overturn it.
Captains cannot challenge decisions made by the referee on certain matters including deliberate forward passes, roll balls, time wasting, dissent, scrum penalties and the mark of a penalty.
Each team is entitled to one unsuccessful challenge per match. That means that if a captain unsuccessfully challenges a decision twice, his team cannot challenge any further decisions for the rest of the game.
