Josh Papalii drives home for Canberra Raiders training after Origin win

After starring in Queensland's 6-4 victory in Sydney, Papalii and his partner Sepasalesa drove home in the early hours of the morning so he could join in Canberra's captain's run before Friday night's home clash with Manly.

Papalii was elevated into Canberra's leadership group this year and the effort shows how desperate he is to back up against the Sea Eagles.

But after playing a career-best 41 minutes off the bench at prop in a torrid encounter, his late night joy ride doesn't guarantee he'll be playing on Friday.

Quietly spoken, the man dubbed 'Papa' doesn't preach much, but his actions do plenty of talking.

"He always puts the team first Papa, he's wonderful," Stuart said.

"It shows the professionalism of Josh, but it also shows you what the boys mean to him.

"He had a bit of a run, but we'll make a decision on him tomorrow morning [Friday].

"He played a fair few minutes in the middle and it was a fairly brutal game.

"I've got Sia Soliola there ready to play [back row] if Josh is not right."

The Raiders will be keen for Papalii to line up, as they will field the least experienced forward pack and bench in the NRL this round even if he plays.

With veterans Jeff Lima (omitted) and Shaun Fensom (rested) dropping out, Canberra's starting pack and bench have played less NRL games than any other side this round.

Only Sia Soliola and Josh Papalii have played, 100 games and facing a five-day turnaround after Sunday's home win over Canterbury, Stuart is looking for as many fresh legs as possible.

Joseph Tapine will start for the first time as a Raider with Paul Vaughan dropping back to the bench, where he made a huge impact early in the season.

Luke Bateman replaces Fensom at lock and Clay Priest will also return to the line-up if Parramatta recruit Junior Paulo's Raiders contract isn't ratified in time.

Canberra has started games sluggishly lately before steaming home late, and prop Shannon Boyd has vowed to help his side avoid having to chase points again.

"Joey [Tapine] and Luke Bateman really picked it up when they came on [off the bench against the Bulldogs]," Boyd said.

"We just have to make sure we start games like that, otherwise we'll risk leaving it too late at some stage and won't get that win.

"[The coaching staff] have been into us pretty hard about the way we start, it's going to be a big job this weekend.

"We just have to not take so long to wake up and fire up from the start, I don't know what it is.

"If we can roll them like we do in the second half early on, it's going to wear them out a lot quicker."

Boyd doesn't harbour any concerns over the lack of experience up front. He said the pack has enough motivation as Paulo applies pressure to keep their spots.

"He's another big body and it's good to have depth in your team," he said.

"You're laughing because if someone's not in good form, you can put in someone who is.

"We have to be on edge every week and make sure we bring our A-game."

Bateman and Tapine are both playing big minutes off the bench, enabling man mountain Boyd to play his natural game of being an impact player.

"I'm still not playing the minutes I'd like to be playing," Boyd said.

"With the interchanges [being reduced] I thought I'd be playing a lot more minutes, but it hasn't changed a lot because with our lock and dummy half [Josh Hodgson] playing a lot more minutes, we're not using the interchanges there.

Joe [Tapine] plays a lot of minutes and so does Luke Bateman, so that helps us guys in the middle do some high impact stuff late in the second half."

NRL ROUND 12

Friday: Canberra Raiders v Manly Sea Eagles at Canberra Stadium, 7.50pm. Tickets from Ticketek.

TV: Live on WIN and Fox Sports 1.

STARTING FORWARD PACK AND BENCH

CLAY PRIEST Age: 27 Games: 4

LUKE BATEMAN Age: 21 Games: 11

ELLIOTT WHITEHEAD Age: 26 Games: 12

JOSEPH TAPINE Age: 22 Games: 29

JOSH HODGSON Age: 26 Games: 36

KURT BAPTISTE Age: 25 Games: 38

SHANNON BOYD Age: 23 Games: 53

PAUL VAUGHAN Age: 25 Games: 76

JOSH PAPALII Age: 24 Games: 115

SIA SOLIOLA Age: 29 Games: 116

Average age: 25

Total games: 490

SHARKS Average age: 29 Games: 1813

TIGERS Average age: 27 Games: 1413

TITANS Average age: 27 Games: 1371

COWBOYS Average age: 27 Games: 1311

WARRIORS Average age: 27 Games: 1310

BRONCOS Average age: 26 Games: 1309

MANLY Average age: 26 Games: 866

ROOSTERS Average age: 25 Games: 846

PANTHERS Average age: 25 Games: 775

BULLDOGS Average age: 25 Games: 703

STORM Average age: 25 Games: 657

RABBITOHS Average age: 24 Games: 604

KNIGHTS Average age: 24 Games: 516