Too early to call Briers' fitness for Sunday's semi final (From Warrington Guardian)

Too early to call Lee Briers' fitness for Sunday's semi final between Warrington Wolves and Huddersfield Giants

12:20am Tuesday 10th July 2012 in Wolves news By Mike Parsons

WOLVES will play a waiting game on Lee Briers’ fitness for the Challenge Cup semi final against Huddersfield Giants on Sunday.

Chief playmaker Briers withdrew from Monday night’s Super League win against Catalan Dragons 40 minutes before kick off, with Stefan Ratchford missing out on a rest night to take his place at stand off.

Wolves’ head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith said: “We’ll play it by ear all week.

“He was ready on Sunday for Monday and we’d gone all week training with Lee but his Achilles wasn’t right and so he wasn’t right to play.

“It came as a shock to us all and Stefan did a fantastic job considering he didn’t know he was playing until 40 minutes before the game.

“I thought Stefan was excellent for England against Exiles the other night and was one of the few who challenged them. He’s backed that up with another solid performance.

“The good thing is we’re far from the days where we needed Lee Briers to play in order for us to win.

“Those days are long gone and we proved that in this game. We were playing against one of the best teams in the competition and I thought the players lifted in intensity. I thought they were terrific.”