The metre-eating winger has shown he's also a metre-eating fullback and a back-up goal kicker.

He was sensational as the Canberra Raiders came from the clouds to score 28 unanswered points and more importantly claim the points against the New Zealand Warriors, winning 28-16 at Mackay on Friday night.

It's kept their finals hopes alive and ended the Warriors' faint hopes in the process.

They now have to beat the Sydney Roosters in Mackay next week to make the eight.

And a lot of it was down to Rapana. Every week he's adding dollars to his unfinalised contract.

He ran for 277 metres, scored a try, set another up, kicked four goals, made two linebreaks and 10 tackle busts.

"He tells me every week what he can do. And he's actually doing it so I can't criticise him for it," Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said of Rapana.

"He amazes me Rapa - he breaks a lot of tackles, he makes a lot of metres, but it's all through effort and energy.

"He's a little bit like Elliott [Whitehead] - he's a real team person."

The game also saw the return of Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad to the gut-busting full back Raiders fans know and love.

He came off the bench to also play a key role in the Canberra comeback.

Nicoll-Klokstad not only scored a try, but had a try assist, ran for 168m and had seven tackle busts.

Oh, and Sebastian Kris put a costly error behind him to score a brace of tries, while their other centre, Matt Timoko was excellent - especially coming out of yardage.

Timoko's a powerful ball runner and has taken to his opportunity this season, finishing with 138m.

But the win came at a cost with Bailey Simonsson going off with a groin injury.

The Warriors lost halfback Chad Townsend to a shoulder injury and had three players put on report.

Lodge was put on report for a hip-drop tackle on Joe Tapine.

He'll likely be suspended - having only just returned from a two-game ban.

Marcelo Montoya and Bunty Afoa were also put on report for high shots.

"I'm feeling a lot better than I was at half-time," Stuart said.

"We played with too much of an eye on the scoreboard and what the result was about. That's what we spoke about at half-time.

"I said, 'I don't care what happens in regards to the overall result I just want to win the second half'.

"We've played too tight, we're making errors and we just kept feeding possession and field position to the Warriors, just kept making a real hurdle for ourselves.

"And yet defensively I thought we were really, really good tonight.

"The first try was uncommon in regards to the mix-up we had at marker and two kicks two tries - they're two catches we should've caught."

Despite there being so much on the line, the Raiders made a lackadaisical start with some awful defence allowing the Warriors to open the scoring.

Warriors hooker Wayde Egan split the markers of Josh Hodgson and Ryan Sutton to streak away from midfield before putting Sean O'Sullivan away - although the pass appeared to be forward, similar to controversial one the Warriors got away with the last time these two teams met.

The Raiders were their own worst enemies, making mistakes to concede tries - with both Simonsson and Kris missing bombs to allow Rocco Berry and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to score.

In a double whammy, Simonsson came straight off the field, forcing a backline reshuffle for the Raiders - Nicoll-Klokstad coming on at fullback, with Rapana shifting to the wing.

They also made mistakes with the ball, completing at just 67 per cent in the first half.

But the Raiders got a sniff just before half-time with Nicoll-Klokstad crashing over from close range to make it a 16-6 Warriors lead at the break.

That was the perfect tonic for Nicoll-Klokstad, whose return after a 19-week injury absence didn't go to plan - a loose carry on his first touch costing a try.

He produced a perfectly timed pass for Kris to slide in and atone for his earlier mistake under the high ball.

Kris then finished off some Jack Wighton and Rapana interplay to level the scores.

Rapana and Hudson Young crossed twice in the final two minutes to grab the win and keep the top-eight alive.

Young was also excellent, running for 196m - more than half of them in the first half - as he and Tapine provided the grunt for the Green Machine in the middle.

Tapine finished with 183m, while Horsburgh had 109m in his first game back after a two-game loan spell with Canterbury - although he also had two loose carries late in the second half that could've been costly.