A CAREER as a professional rugby league player was spotted when Chris Bridge was “messing around” at school.

Twenty years later, the former England and Ireland international is able to mark 10 seasons of service to Warrington Wolves, along with previous spells at Huddersfield Giants and Bradford Bulls, as his Testimonial campaign officially starts this weekend.

Bridge, who grew up in Oldham, said: “I played rugby at school, messing around, and my head teacher pulled my dad to one side and said you need to take him to rugby – he’ll make it.”

Although he initially joined Oldham St Annes Amateur Rugby League Club, upon selection for the town’s under 11s schools team he found that all the other boys were playing for Royton Tigers and so he made the switch.

He stayed with them until he was 16 when he turned professional with Huddersfield.

“I could have signed for Bradford when I was 13 but my dad wouldn’t let me when I was young,” said Bridge.

His dad, whose own sporting background was in football rather than rugby, had a key role to play in his son’s burgeoning career.

Bridge said: “I remember my dad driving me around everywhere. When you’re younger you don’t realise what your family do for you.

“There was club training, town team training, Lancashire training, playing matches on Saturdays and Sundays. My dad picked me up from school every day and I was travelling to Wigan, Leigh and Widnes for training.

“I used to play football at school too. I was a decent footballer and teams used to ask me to play for them but I just wanted to play rugby.

“When I was about 14 or 15 I didn’t want to go to Lancashire training one particular Friday night. There was a party I wanted to go to and it didn’t go down too well with my dad.

“He said ‘Right, I won’t take you to Lancashire training, but I won’t take you anywhere else either. I go out of my way for you’.

“And that’s right, of course, although I didn’t think that at the time.”

At 16 he signed for Huddersfield Giants’ academy set-up, with Wigan, Halifax and Widnes all coming in for him after he had put pen to paper at the Galpharm Stadium (now John Smith’s Stadium) where he was relishing working with a former dual code international.

“Huddersfield was the best place at the time. John Bentley was there and it was a big thing for me to go there. And it was a shorter trip for my dad,” said Bridge.

But in 2001 he switched to Bradford, where Bulls Mania was in full swing and the silverware polish was in regular use.

Upon the Giants’ relegation from Super League, Bridge was ruled a free agent at tribunal enabling Super League champions Bulls to sign him.

His form earned him international honours as he became one of the heroes of England Academy’s historic first ever series victory over the Australian Schoolboys, playing centre under Mike Gregory’s tutorship in both of the 2002 Tests.

He was a dominating figure for the Bulls’ academy team and won the Dave Valentine Memorial Trophy in their Grand Final defeat to Wigan Warriors in 2003.

His Super League debut came off the bench in a 60-12 success at Halifax on July 11, 2003, and his first try in the top flight came eight months later in a brace at Wakefield in what was one of 17 appearances for Bulls in the top flight.

Only two of those games for Bradford came as starts, a situation he was keen to change with Warrington Wolves when he moved to The Halliwell Jones Stadium at the start of 2005 for a transfer fee of £30,000.

Huddersfield were the opponents when he made his Wolves debut at stand off in March, 2005.

His 10-year journey with Wolves had begun.

* Chris Bridge's Testimonial game takes place against Hull KR at The Halliwell Jones Stadium on Sunday, kick off 3.30pm. Wolves will also play Toulouse at 1pm as Tony Smith gives all his men a run in preparation for the start of Super League XX.