In 2020, the NRL will be implementing a captains challenge that will give team captains the opportunity to overturn a call that they believe was wrong.

Basically, if the officials make a call going against a team, their captain can challenge the call and get a second review, if the review is successful the decision is overturned, if the review fails then that team will not be allowed to make another challenge again that game.

Any reviews made for a captains challenge will be done so by the bunker.

This new rule is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of of less controversial decisions going the wrong way.

However, this could lead to referees second guessing themselves and feeling pressured by team captains to overturn decisions that may have been correct in the first place.

Captains could also be pressured by teammates to make a challenge on a call they personally don’t see as wrong, which could lead one to argue that the captains challenge should be made by the coaches perhaps, like in the NFL.

Overall, the captains challenge may come with its complications as mentioned and won’t fix everything, however it is a step in the right direction and I believe will fix more problems then it causes.