New Zealand legend Stacey Jones has announced he will come out of retirement to play for the New Zealand Warriors in 2009.
Kiwis legend agrees 12-month contract with New Zealand Warriors
New Zealand legend Stacey Jones has announced he will come out of retirement to play for the New Zealand Warriors in 2009.
Jones, 32, quit the game in 2007 after a successful two-year stint with the Catalan Dragons in Super League.
However, he has now decided to launch a comeback with his former club for whom he originally made his debut in 1995.
The scrum-half spent ten years with the Warriors before his switch to Europe in 2005, making 238 appearances, and has now signed a 12-month contract to play for them again in the NRL.
"It's a huge decision but I'm so excited about what's ahead," he stated.
Jones went on to explain he had never officially retired from the game but had simply honoured an agreement with the Dragons after opting out of a year's extension with the French outfit.
He then revealed he had been persuaded to return to the game by Warriors coach Ivan Cleary having had his appetite whetted by a run-out for the All Golds in Ruben Wiki's swansong.
"The truth is I had originally signed a new contract to play on with Les Catalans this year but it was a bit rushed," Jones told the
New Zealand Herald.
Homesick
"By then we'd [he, wife Rachelle and their three children, Chellcey, Waiana and William] had two great years in Perpignan and we were homesick and really keen to come back.
"The club was good about it and let me go but on the condition I couldn't play for any other club in 2008. After training to play for the All Golds in New Plymouth and playing in that game, I realised how much I had missed being out there.
"A few days after the match, Ivan asked me whether I'd be interested in making a return to the NRL. While I accept I have a lot of work to do to get back to NRL standard, I really want to give this a shot. My motivation is to try to help the club win a premiership."
