Warrington’s World Cup heroes – Lee Briers

10:50am Sunday 16th November 2008

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LEE Briers is the only current player at the club who appeared as a Warrington player in the 2000 World Cup.

The stand off steered Wales to the semi finals, where he gave eventual winners Australia the fright of their lives in one of the most memorable World Cup games of all time.

Briers was the chief engineer in opening up the Australian team’s usually ultra reliable defence as Wales built up a 20-8 lead inside 27 minutes.

He scored one try himself, defeating full back Darren Lockyer to Iestyn Harris’ high kick and going over unopposed. Briers also banged over two well executed drop goals for Clive Griffiths’ men.

Wales still held a 22-14 advantage early in the second half before the Kangaroos worked out what they needed to do to overcome the gallant Welsh and eventually run away to a flattering 46-22 win.

Earlier in the competition, Briers was among the try scorers as Wales defeated Cook Islands 38-6 in Wrexham.

He figured in the 24-22 win against Lebanon at Stradey Park in Llanelli, as did Warrington’s new 2009 signing Garreth Carvell.

The 58-12 defeat to New Zealand at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was the biggest disappointment of Briers’ campaign but he forgot all about that in a try-scoring man-of-the-match display as Wales knocked out Papua New Guinea 22-8 in the quarter finals at Widnes.

Briers’ tally of five matches puts him third on the club’s list of player appearances in all World Cup competitions, one match below Duane Mann.

Log on again tomorrow for another feature on a Warrington World Cup hero.

Click on the following links to read about other Warrington World Cup heroes.

Gerry Helme, Duane Mann, Allan Bateman, Steve Roach, Barry Philbin, Andy Gregory, Albert Naughton, Jerome Guisset, Jonathan Davies, John Woods, Dave Chisnall, Iestyn Harris, Jim Challinor, Bobby Wanbon, Lee Penny, Gary Mercer, Dean Busby, Bobby Greenough, Derek Noonan, Toa Kohe-Love, John Bevan, Mark Jones, Eric Fraser, Kevin Tamati