The Canberra Raiders are waiting to pounce on Eels prop Junior Paulo for a mid-season transfer if Parramatta are forced to offload players due to their salary cap issues.
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The immediate concern for the Raiders is finding a way to stop Paulo when they take on the Eels at Parramatta Stadium on Saturday.
However, the Raiders would be willing to bring him across before the June 30 deadline if the Eels have to shed players to get under the salary cap.
The Raiders have space in their salary cap to take on Paulo for the rest of the season without having to let anyone else go.
Paulo would be a wonderful addition to the Raiders' forward pack, but the Eels would be reluctant to release him given his tremendous start to the season.
The 22-year-old front-rower is averaging 113m and 21 tackles per game through the first five rounds of the competition.
Raiders second-rower Elliott Whitehead said he had taken extra notice of Paulo since it was announced he would be joining the club next year.
"He goes well, he's got some good hits in him and he carts the ball up well, so we'll have to do a good job on him in the middle and stop him this week," Whitehead said.
Bench forward Joe Tapine added: "It's kind of different, we've got the whole year to go. He's playing for a different team this year. I've watched a couple of his games and he's a damaging player, so I'm looking forward to having him on the team next year. We need to try and tire him out because he's a big boy. He's pretty fit, so we'll work it out."
The Raiders' depth in the front-row will be tested over the next couple months to cover for the loss of reigning player of the year Sia Soliola and veteran prop Jeff Lima.
Soliola will be sidelined for six to eight weeks with a broken arm suffered in Monday night's 22-8 win against the Bulldogs at Belmore, while Lima is out for a similar amount of time with a hand injury.
That opens the door for Tapine to play an increased role off the Raiders' bench.
Tapine got through plenty of work against the Bulldogs, running for 112m and making 22 tackles in 34 minutes.
It was his third game for the Raiders since gaining a release to join the club this season after initially signing a three-year deal that was set to start in 2017.
"The coach (Ricky Stuart) is slowly giving me more minutes, so I'm slowly getting used to it," Tapine said.
"I feel like I fit in well and I'm still trying to work on parts of my game.
"Just more minutes mostly, getting my lungs used to playing in the middle a bit more so I can give the team a bit more.
"It's a good opportunity for me to try and play more minutes with a couple of the boys out, but we've got a lot of depth."
Luke Bateman will be used in the front-row rotation off the bench in his first game this season.
Meanwhile, Raiders assistant coach Mick Crawley has extended his contract until the end of next year.
NRL ROUND 6
Saturday: Parramatta Eels v Canberra Raiders at Parramatta Stadium, 3pm.
