The ruling which is already being used in Australia’s National Rugby League gives each team one opportunity to challenge a referee’s decision during a match.

Once the team has agreed to use the captain’s challenge, the video referee will step in to look at the incident and consider whether to overturn the on-field official’s original call.

If successful, the team will retain the referral which they can use again.

The captain’s challenge is one of a raft of rule changes approved by the International Rugby League’s Board ahead of the World Cup, scheduled to run from October 23 to November 27.

The recommended changes to the international laws of the game were proposed by the Laws Advisory Group (LAG).

IRL match official manager Stuart Cummings chairs the groups which is comprised of members of the Australian Rugby League Commission, the Rugby Football League, Asian Pacific Rugby League and European Rugby League.

Other changes to the laws that will apply to the World Cup include the use of the restart clock with play restarting within 30 seconds of the award of a scrum and 25 seconds of a drop-out.

The clock will also stop for all stoppages in the final five minutes of the game and after one minute and 20 seconds if a conversion or penalty attempt has not been completed.

"This has been a long and complicated process, but we have an excellent outcome and now the international laws can be applied uniformly," said Cummings.

"I would like to thank all the members of LAG and the many other contributors who worked collaboratively to reach this outcome."