The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) has officially approved the captain's challenge for the 2020 season.
The NRL informed clubs today that the new rule will begin from the opening round of the upcoming season.
NRL Chief Executive Todd Greenberg confirmed he's excited for what the new rule will bring to each game.
"This is an exciting innovation for our game,'' Greenberg said.
"It will add an additional layer of excitement, unpredictability and tactics to matches. Most importantly though, it provides an opportunity for a wrong decision to be overturned."
Teams will be handed one unsuccessful challenge against a referee's decision along with no cap on the number of successful challenges per game.
Unless play commences sooner, players will have 10 seconds to decide whether or not they wish to challenge a decision.
For teams to use their captain's challenge, it can only be done when there's a structured restart like a penalty, handover, scrum, 20-metre restart or line drop out.
Although the new rule will give teams the power to take control of on-field howlers, NRL's Head of Football Graham Annesley warned fans not to expect it as a solution to solve all of the game's problems.
"I'd always like to see referees have the courage of their convictions and make decisions, I don't want to see them relying on any sort of crutch," Annesley told Nine Radio earlier this month.
"It's a delicate balance, we don't want them to use their discretion to the point where they make errors.
"We've got the video referee in the bunker to help them with point scoring situations.
"There's never really been any backup, other than the on-field officials in general play.
"This won't solve all the problems and we will still have controversial decisions and people will probably argue about whether the bunker adjudicates on the challenges correctly or not.
"We're still going to have all that controversy around the game. But hopefully this will mean that some of those big errors - and we saw a couple last year - are able to be avoided."
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/nrl-approves-captains-challenge-for-2020-season/255a7658-7008-4ddd-a288-9e1c3f9347cd
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