Lee Briers looking forward to visiting Crusaders

Briers quit international rugby league and stood down as Wolves captain in 2007 but the 30-year old is still an active member of the Warrington squad and can’t wait to play at the Brewery Field in 2009.

“It’s going to be a really good clash in Bridgend, I can’t wait for it to happen,” he said. “The Celtic Crusaders away game will be the first fixture that I look for having played in Bridgend a few times for Wales. It’ll be strange going into the away dressing room this time.”

Briers made his debut for Wales in 1998 against England at Widnes and went on to win 18 Welsh caps, captaining Wales in seven of them. His eight tries, 20 goals and five drop goals makes him Wales’ third highest scorer in the last 20 years and fourth on the all time list.

He knows how much Celtic Crusaders’ Super League place means for the development of Welsh Rugby League in general.

“We’ve always need to expand rugby league,” Briers admits. “We already have a team in France and the next step was to admit Celtic Crusaders. This can only make the Welsh team stronger and lead for a better class of international game.

“You’re going to see a lot more kids wanting to come through and play rugby league now. In the past, they’ve not been given the opportunity to play at the highest level in Wales, but now they’ve got Super League to aim for so more will want to give it a go. I’ll be following their progress closely and I really would love to see Super League become successful in Wales.”

The 2009 Super League season will be Briers' 12th. Currently fourth in the all-time points scoring list for Warrington, only Harry Bath, Brian Bevan and Steve Hesford have scored more for the famous club.

Briers, and everyone else in the country, will find out when the Crusaders take on Warrington in early December when the Super League 2009 fixture list is released. All the latest news and developments from the club will be posted at www.crusadersrfl.com.