NOBODY needs to tell Warrington Wolves skipper Lee Briers how important Saturday's televised Carnegie Challenge Cup Quarter Final tie against St Helens is for his club.

Besides an opportunity to progress towards the final staged at the new Wembley Stadium, it's a tie against his hometown team!

Briers is a product of the St Helens Academy system and he was transferred to Warrington in 1997 for £65,000.

He played just six first-team games and scored 52 points for Saints before he moved across the Cheshire border' to the Wolves and his parents still live no more than a good drop kick from the St Helens' Knowsley Road stadium.

But Briers is quite sanguine about renewing his acquaintance with his former club.

"It's ten years since I played for Saints," he said, "and of course I'm more interested in playing well for Warrington these days".

Briers sees this Carnegie Challenge Cup Quarter Final against Saints as an opportunity for the Wolves to build on their recent performances.

"We're under no illusions, this is a tough match for us," he said, "But as far as we're concerned we've not been playing that badly and if we turn up on the day then anything is possible."

Welsh international Briers has now been around at the top level of British Rugby League for long enough to know that there is a major difference between the demands of League and Cup competitions.

"This is a one-off situation," he says. "Nothing can ever be certain in this competition not at this level of the sport".

Another powerful incentive to do well is to remain on track to appear at Wembley.

Briers believes that every player in the game is keen to get to the new national stadium to play in a Carnegie Challenge Cup Final, especially this year when the competition returns to its spiritual home.

"It would be incredible to be involved in the first Final to be played at Wembley since it re-opened after its rebuilding programme," he said.

"But first we face the major challenge of playing St Helens and that has to be our immediate focus.

"We're going into the tie in a confident frame of mind. Not only will it be a change from engage Super League, but also everybody expects Saints to win. So some of the pressure that's built up in recent weeks is lifted from us."