Super League coach urges ‘waste of time’ captain’s challenge to be scrapped for ‘good of the game’

Daryl Powell has fired a major warning shot at those in charge of Super League, arguing that the captain’s challenge must be scrapped ‘for the good of the game’.

Powell’s ultimatum came after Wakefield Trinity edged Hull KR 26-24 in a drama-filled game that took well over two hours to complete, in large part due to the number of captain’s challenges and a lengthy video referee decision that Powell labelled as ‘obvious’.

The Wakefield coach may well have been more animated in his argument had Trinity come out on the wrong side of the result but he still aired his frustrations in his post-match presser, shared on the club’s YouTube channel.

Asked how games can be sped up after yet another lengthy match, Powell was clear:  “You’ve got to get rid of captain’s challenge, straight off the bat.”

One of his major gripes was the fact that challenges can be inconclusive, effectively creating a delay for no actual impact on the game.

“If you have an inconclusive, it just doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work. I don’t see it,” Powell declared, adding: “You’ve got to change it, somehow. Either get rid of it or change it.An inconclusive then adds another one on and our game is not that, it’s not that.

“It’s quarter to seven, our game kicked off at half past four. It’s mental.”

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Daryl Powell questions lengthy video referee review and asks question of pressure on officials

Having aired his initial grievances about the captain’s challenge, Powell moved onto another time-consuming incident which was Peta Hiku’s attempt at a try in the 71st minute. Initially ruled no try on field by referee Aaron Moore, the video referee Liam Rush then took three minutes and 15 seconds before upholding that decision in an incident that Powell was bemused by.

Powell asked: “That video referee when Hiku gets held up, I mean how many times do you need to look at it? How many times?

“I’m telling you, I’m at home on a regular basis and my wife is saying to me, ‘why don’t you do that job’ because I’m telling you now, after two or three looks, you can tell. I know you guys will be the same so why are these boys under so much pressure that they have to look at it (so many times)?

“I can’t tell you how many times he looked at that Hiku one but that was wow, I’ve never seen anybody looked at an incident as much in my life, and it was obvious from the second one.”

Continuing, Powell said: “(There were) no other angles, the second one (angle), you can’t see it (the ball). You’ve got fans slow hand clapping now, that is now what we want.

“If you count up how many times, it was probably 16 or 18, I don’t know but you’ve got to make a decision before that.”

Why Super League must scrap the captain’s challenge

Whilst that was just a video referee decision on a try, the debate arced back around to the captain’s challenge and Powell was steadfast in hos opinion – get rid of it now.

He exclaimed: “Everybody is saying it, for the good of the game we have to do something. I’d do it now, if I’m honest, I think it’s that important.

“Every single game, every single coach is talking about this, so something needs to change. It’s crazy.”

Powell also highlighted how many Super League teams are using the captain’s challenge beyond it’s intended purpose and exploiting it just to get a breather late on in games.

“The beauty of this game is the flow and the energy and the intensity of it,” he explained, noting: “Hull KR went for a captain’s challenge on an obvious high tackle at the end to give themselves a breather to defend that final four minutes, it’s an obvious high tackle.

“Change it and change it quick for the beauty of the sport because it’s a beautiful sport and I don’t want to be damaging the sport by talking about it in a negative way but somebody has to make the decision that we’ve got to change it.”

Asked if there’s any way it can be fixed, instead of being scrapped, Powell responded firmly: “No, get rid of it. Waste of time, it’s not a waste of time, but it is a waste of time. If you add up the time taken by captain’s challenges today, what would it be? Maybe 15 minutes, what do we get?

“Maybe I want rid of it because we’re not getting it, let’s get rid of it. It’s not a good look for the sport, everybody’s saying it. If it doesn’t happen now then it has to happen for next season.”