THE Captain’s Challenge was introduced into Super League last season.

That was five years after it had been used for the first time in the NRL, where it first appeared in 2020.

I had mixed feelings about its introduction into our game.

I could see the advantage of ensuring that every refereeing decision could be amended if it wasn’t right.

But, when looking at the technology available in the NRL, I wondered whether our video referees would be able to make decisions with the same alacrity and accuracy.

And one thing I didn’t anticipate was how many Captain’s Challenges there might be in individual games.

Several times this season I’ve felt very frustrated as we experience a succession of Captain’s Challenges that slow down the game and depress the atmosphere.

So I have to admit that when watching the Hull derby last Thursday night I was delighted to see Hull KR lose their very early challenge after a couple of minutes, which meant that they wouldn’t be able to challenge again throughout the game.

And I wonder how many other people had the same feeling. Maybe there were even some Hull KR fans who felt the same way.

As time has gone by I’ve grown more antagonistic towards the whole idea of the Captain’s Challenge.

Rugby League is an entertainment and in my view the Captain’s Challenge detracts from the game’s entertainment value rather than adding to it.

And that is true particularly for fans in the stadium, who in many cases can’t hear what the video referee is saying.

It’s particularly annoying when the video referee rules ‘inconclusive’ after two minutes looking at the incident from every angle. It simply means that we will probably have to go through the same tortuous process several more times later in the game.

When we compare the approaches of the NRL and the RFL in administering the Captain’s Challenge, we see that an NRL game can have as many as 20 cameras transmitting information to the Bunker. And the Bunker has every camera feed on a big screen at its HQ in Sydney. Therefore the NRL video referee can go straight to the camera feed that gives the best angle to make a decision. The process is quick and accurate.

In Super League, by contrast, we have far fewer cameras. And we have a video referee looking at a succession of camera angles, seemingly taking an age before sometimes having to admit that he can’t make his mind up. And on Saturday night at Toulouse the process descended into farce, with technical problems seeming to delay the game incessantly.

I think the RFL should abolish the Captain’s Challenge.

But if we can’t go that far, I would like to see the Captain’s Challenge limited to one challenge per team per game.

Most teams would then be reluctant to challenge before the later stages of a game.

It could even make the game more exciting.