Quote: 100% Saint "I was a bit surprised when they said Lee Briers was lance todd winner...'"
I thought it was well deserved and IMO Briers is a better player now at the end of his career than he was a few years ago when everybody was talking him up for the GB side. In the old days everyone used to rave about him because they'd see the moments of brilliance he produced but his game could be up and down. Remember that World Cup semi against the Aussies which went down in legend as Briers 'destroying the Aussies' basically because he kicked two long range drop goals, and had minimal influence on the rest of the game in fact I don't think he touched the ball in the second half hence the Aussies coming back and thrashing them.
Compare that with today when he was calm and ruthlessly clinical with his boot setting up tries and all round organising the play. These days he is a great organiser like Goulding was and he has IMO the best kicking game in SL. The same thing happened with Sean Long as well, in his early days he had blistering speed and would run off Tommy Martyn and go through gaps like Jonathan Davies did and score shedloads of tries, those were the days when he caught the eye as an individual most. But after that bad injury he got in 2001 he was never quite as quick again, but I thought it was after that that he developed into the best part of his career, every time Saints had a big game Long just knew what needed to be done and made sure the game was controlled. That for me is what a halfback should be there for, not to produce one or two moments of magic, but to pull the strings and take a team around the park, its the best way to settle nerves on the big occasion. Briers has had two big finals now and he's done the job perfectly in both....since Smith has been Wire coach an ageing Briers has played the most influential rugby of his career.
