CRAIG Gower returns to town this weekend 15 years after helping Penrith Panthers rip Warrington Wolves to shreds.

Gower was just making his way in the game when he figured alongside future Warrington captain Danny Farrar at scrum half in the 52-22 World Club Championship defeat of Darryl Van de Velde’s struggling team at Wilderspool.

Now, 23 Australia caps later and fresh from a four-year stint in France with rugby union club Aviron Bayonnais, he is looking to wreak havoc on Wolves again as the new general in a big-spending London Broncos outfit.

Trent Waterhouse, as a teammate of Gower’s at Penrith until he shipped off to the dark side in 2007, knows Wolves will have to keep a close eye on the 33-year-old Italian rugby union international.

And it would surely be to Warrington’s benefit that, like in 1997, Lee Briers is facing him in the half-back battle at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

That extra bit of know-how that Wolves’ veteran creative genius provides can make all the difference against such an old hand as Gower.

Let us hope that Briers has done enough this week to prove to his boss Tony Smith that he merits selection.

It was disappointing for all concerned to learn that Wolves’ most influential player of the Super League era – and a role model to the talented youngsters developing at the club – missed out against Hull because he did not live up to the high standards of preparation that the players set for themselves.

He will be disappointed with himself and I expect he will have got on with his business like the true champion he has become with every passing year.

But it wasn’t the right way to start a season in which so much is expected and I’m sure he will set his stall out to put matters straight throughout the remainder of the campaign.

All the negative hype surrounding his ‘minor misdemeanour’ can serve to put even more fire in his belly while continuing, in his words, to ‘repay the club the best he can’ for the great life given to him.

There’s only one thing for it, Lee.

Play your best part in getting Warrington Wolves to the Grand Final and week one of Stobart Super League XVII will be forgotten.