A return that saw him go head-to-head with his old mate Joey Leilua - although they didn't cross paths too often.

Patience certainly wasn't a word associated with "Leipana" when Rapana and Leilua prowled on Canberra's right edge, but it's something more prevalent in the modern-day Green Machine.

In the past they might not have been able to simply stick in the grind, in conditions Canberra coach Ricky Stuart said were tricky.

The 14-6 victory over the Wests Tigers at Campbelltown Stadium on Saturday showed the maturity fitting of Stuart's 400^th game as an NRL coach.

It saw the Raiders down early and struggling to get anything going in attack. But for a fantastic try-saving Rapana tackle the deficit would've been more than four points at half-time.

Stuart then spoke to them in the break about maintaining that patience. Grinding away until the opportunities came. Which they did. And the Raiders halves were good enough to take them both.

Then they were back in the grind for the rest of the game. Job done.

"A lot of that was spoken about at half-time. That it was really important we stay to the task, stay to the plan that we were working on all week and not going away from it," Stuart said.

"If things weren't working for us not to get impatient and try and do it on your own."

Rapana was a late inclusion, coming onto the Raiders' left wing with Bailey Simonsson dropping to the Canberra bench.

He was involved with everything. Try saving tackles. Heaps and heaps of yardage.

Stuart felt the Green Machine needed his 121 NRL games of experience on their left edge. Especially with ex-Raider Leilua now in the Wests centres.

Whether he sticks with Rapana going forward, or adopts a horses-for-courses approach he was yet to make a call on.

"It was a matter of bringing in some experience. We didn't underestimate the week we had coming up and it was important I had some experience on that edge," Stuart said.

"Bailey Simonsson is a wonderful team person. He took it in his stride and I've got to credit him because everybody wants to start, but he accepted it and understood the reason.

"I thought it was important having [Leilua] on that edge with so much experience I needed to match that with experience and I did with Jarrod [Croker], Jordy and obviously Jack [Wighton] there with Elliott [Whitehead].

"They did a wonderful job."

Stuart was also full of praise for his three bench players - Ryan Sutton, Emre Guler and Siliva Havili. He felt they were all brilliant.

Sutton came in for an ill Corey Horsburgh and provided plenty of momentum through the middle of the game alongside Guler.

It will pose Stuart a problem at the selection table ahead of the Manly clash with Horsburgh also excellent before gastro forced him out.

"I'm just hoping we can start playing at home very soon. They've done a wonderful job to be able to get on a bus for three hours, get here and play a game like that," he said.

"It was a big day. We'll have a look at it this week and look after them.

"We flew last week to Mascot and jumped on a bus here. We weren't allowed to do it today.

"A couple of players are very comfortable with the bus more so than the plane. I'll talk to the leaders about it during the week and see what they want to do next week."

At this stage Stuart was unsure when they would return to playing home games at Canberra Stadium.

He felt they might now opt to simply bus to their home games at Campbelltown in the future, having taken a bus-flight combo for their "home" game against Newcastle.

"My three players that went on were brilliant, and the ability to use Bailey for an HIA was great, we were able to put a player who specialises in that area back in that position," Stuart said.

"I've got Hudson [Young] back now. Over the next four or five weeks, if I can, I'll start rotating players to keep the energy high.

"I thought [Sutton] was very strong, to be able to come back after being out for a while, he didn't look as though he had been out. Liva and Emre, when they came on they did a good job for us."

AT A GLANCE

CANBERRA RAIDERS 14 (Jack Wighton, Nick Cotric tries; Jarrod Croker 3 goals) bt WESTS TIGERS 6 (Luke Brooks try; Moses Mbye goal) at Campbelltown Stadium. Referee: Chris Sutton.