Gareth Widdop to help trial captain's challenge in NRL

England stand-off Gareth Widdop will help break new ground this weekend when a captain's challenge is trialled in rugby league.

The initiative, widely used in cricket and tennis, will be used in Saturday's NRL match between St George Illawarra, who are led by Widdop, and Newcastle.

Initially, the captains will be permitted to challenge the referee's decision in relation to tries only.

The referee will make a decision on the field and captains will have 20 seconds to ask for it to be reviewed by the video official's bunker.

Each team will be allowed one incorrect challenge in each half but there will be no limit on how many times a captain can contest a ruling by the match officials if he continues to be proved right.

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An additional challenge will be allowed in the final five minutes of the game and in golden point.

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said the league 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.

"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," Greenberg said.

"We will assess the trial to determine if there is scope to use the captain's challenge more widely in the future."