CHRIS Bridge repaid his coach after asking to play stand off against Doncaster in the Challenge Cup fifth round.

The 29-year-old regular centre, in his 10th season with Wolves, put his hand up for the job after learning Stefan Ratchford would miss out with a calf strain.

His response, upon returning from a groin problem that saw him miss the loss at Castleford Tigers on Easter Monday, was a man-of-the-match display that included four tries, a number of try assists and 10 conversions from 12 attempts.

The haul of 36 points in one match has only ever been beaten by Lee Briers in the club’s entire history.

“He was on fire today, terrific,” said Wolves’ head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith of his former England international.

“He was keen to step into that stand-off position when he heard that Stefan was out.

“Stefan has got a small tear in his calf and so he’ll be missing for a week or two.

“Bridgey was the one who came to me and said he thought he should be playing stand off this week.

“He’s backed that up with a very good performance. I won’t say it was faultless, I did see him make a mistake, but he was one of the shining lights on a day when there were plenty of them.

“With a scoreline like that, there are going to be people that stand out.”

Smith also singled out Kevin Penny and Rhys Evans for praise.

It was not Bridge’s best try-scoring haul for Wolves.

He scored five in a Challenge Cup win at Huddersfield Giants in 2010.