NRL: What to watch when 2020 season restarts | Rugby League News

Kalyn Ponga and Newcastle Knights made a bright start to the 2020 NRL season

After over two months suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, the NRL returns to action on Thursday morning UK time.

The reformatted 2020 season begins with Brisbane Broncos taking on Parramatta Eels, live on Sky Sports at 10.50am, with the remaining seven Round 3 matches being broadcast over the weekend as well.

Here, we run down what to keep an eye out for when the competition resumes this week…

Brisbane Broncos vs Parramatta Eels

May 28, 2020, 10:55am

Live on

How the season will look

The 2020 NRL season will now run for 20 rounds – two of those having already been played prior to the suspension – with the play-offs commencing on October 2 and the Grand Final taking place at the Sydney Cricket Ground on October 26.

Matches will be played behind closed doors until further notice and are confined to six venues in Australia until Round 9, with the New Zealand Warriors based in Gosford and playing ‘home’ matches at Central Coast Stadium.

The fixture list has been redrawn too, with all 16 sides playing 10 teams once, five of them twice and the emphasis being on rivalry matches.

That may well play into the hands of Cronulla Sharks, with the 2016 premiers avoiding having to play any of last year’s play-off qualifiers twice in the remaining matches.

Brisbane will kick off the NRL’s return against Parramatta

By contrast, reigning back-to-back champions Sydney Roosters – who return against rivals South Sydney Rabbitohs on Friday – and last year’s minor premiers Melbourne Storm have arguably the toughest draw.

They will both have to play home and away games against four of last season’s finalists, including each other. Meanwhile, the Storm restart against last year’s beaten Grand Finalists, Canberra Raiders, on Saturday.

New rules being trialled

Among the changes the NRL is making for the return to action is there will be just one on-field referee controlling the match rather than the two which have been used since the 2009 season.

But without the extra official to police the ruck area, a change to the playing rules has been implemented which will see the referee restart the tackle count rather than award a…