Salford star Ryan Brierley pays ultimate compliment to former club Leigh

Salford ace Ryan Brierley has paid the ultimate compliment to his Leigh ahead of Rivals Round by saying he’d love to finish his career with his former club.

The 31-year-old, who says he is loving life with his boyhood club Salford, will face his former side Leigh for the second time in as many months this Saturday.

Brierley is second in the list of Leigh’s all-time record try scorers, having scored 154 tries in 156 appearances in his three spells with the club between 2012-21.

The Scotland international insists he is so proud to represent Salford now, the club he grew up supporting, but would love to hang up his boots as a Leigh player whenever that may be.

“I love going back to be honest,” Brierley said when asked about this weekend’s trip to the Leigh Sports Village.

“I’ve got a lot of good memories there, a lot of good friends and people there at the club.

“It’s probably never played on my mind about it being Leigh, it’s just a case of playing against my old mates again, which I suppose you have mates at any club.

“I’ve obviously made no secret that I’d love to finish my career off there”

“It’s a club that gave me a massive opportunity at the start of my career, ironically with Paul Rowley in charge.

“I’ve got a massive job to do at Salford and I’m unbelievably happy here and I feel we’re on the right journey to achieve something special at Salford and I want to be a big part of that, but I would like to go back (to Leigh) one day and finish my career off where it started.

“I’ve fond memories, great people and they did a lot for me. The fans – it is a 50/50 split if I get booed or clapped – it was a bit of a 50/50 split last time but I’ll always be respectful to the fans and what they’ve done for me in the past. If you want to clap, brilliant – if you want to boo, then it is what it is.”

Ryan Brierley on his fond memories as a Leyther

The Preston-born full-back was in the ranks at Castleford as a youngster but began his professional career at Leigh, making his first team debut in 2012.

Brierley, who represented Scotland at last year’s World Cup, says he will forever be grateful for the opportunity the Leigh club gave him.

“When I first went to Leigh I obviously didn’t envisage getting that close to the try scoring record,” Brierley said. “But as it got closer I did!

“It was just an unbelievable time in my career and it has set me up for the lessons I’ve learned. They helped me grow as a person and as a player. I’ve got fond memories.

“I think the Challenge Cup was a highlight, when we beat Super League teams as a Championship team, that was a good one. The journey we went on and the players I played with like bringing Fuifui Moimoi over, playing with him as a 22-year-old kid was pretty mad.

“From a family point of view, a lot of my family live local so a lot of my dad’s friends are Leigh fans so there is a connection there.

“It is a place that was my home”

“I struggled with being at Castleford beforehand, I couldn’t really get a start anywhere, I never really broke into a team but I broke into that (Leigh) team pretty young.

“I got looked after really by the likes of Stuart Littler and Tommy Goulden who put their arms around me a little bit because the Championship is a tough league and there are a lot of senior players who want to come and take your head off, so to have that backing and support from them (was great).

“Even when I played poorly, the coach Paul Rowley just stuck by me no matter what and I’d like to think I’ve repaid that faith with him at Leigh.

“Just the journey we went on with Paul, if you rewind back to the start, there was kind of no team at Leigh. Rowls kind of assembled like a misfits group of people that no-one really wanted and we turned into the crazy gang didn’t we?

“I really enjoyed my time there and probably a big reason of why I’m at Salford is probably because of my time at Leigh under Paul Rowley and how special he made my time at Leigh is exactly how special he’s making it at Salford.

“I obviously owe Paul a lot and I owe the Leigh club a lot so I’m really excited to go back there on Saturday and meet up with some friends who I saw eight weeks ago.”

Brierley’s Red Devils face the Leopards at the Leigh Sports Village in Rivals Round on Saturday (2:30pm), live on Sky Sports.

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