LEE Briers has signed a new two-year deal at Warrington Wolves elevating him to an assistant coaching role with the first team alongside his under 19s duties.

The deals sees the 37-year-old, who is the current under 19s academy head coach, commit his future to the club until the end of 2017.

Briers, who made more than 400 appearances for Wolves after joining the club in 1997, said he is ‘loving’ the coaching side of the game.

“It’s something I planned to get into after retiring,” said Warrington’s record points scorer. “I’m 18 months in now and I am loving it.

“Every day is a joy; to come in and coach such good kids. When you work at a successful club and have great staff around you it makes my job a lot easier.”

Briers praised coaching peers Chris Rudd, Pete Nicholson and Phil Jones, as well as thanking Ben Lazenby who left the club this season.

“The club has been great with me,” he added. “They sent me out to Australia and I also studied Wayne Bennett while they (Brisbane) were over here.

“You learn every day. Every day is different in coaching as there’s always something that’s different in the game which you need to transfer over to players. We are continuing to produce good players and local talent too, which is important.

“Next year alongside my role as head coach of the under 19s, my role as assistant coach to the first team will be made more permanent too.

“I’ll do more work on a day-to-day basis, and I’m sure Tony will have me in for more hours.”

Head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith added: “Lee’s made good progress as a coach.

“He’s still in the early stages of his coaching career but he’s got a good rapport with both the young players and now the senior players within the group.

“He’s done a good job with the under 19s and has helped develop the players. He’s got a good understanding of the game but also of the pitfalls that are there to distract young people from their jobs.

“Having experienced some of those firsthand, he’s been able to guide them and lead them in the right direction. He’s now passing on his experience.

“It was important for him to have a cut-off period from the first team after playing and now that he’s been able to integrate back into that environment we are delighted he is going to play more of a role next year, where he’ll join Richard and me.

“He’ll spend time with the players on their kick practice. Lee’s intuition and experience can certainly be of benefit to the players.”