NRL: Canberra Raiders' Jordan Rapana says beating Wests Tigers is all that matters

The Green Machine has the benefit of playing the final game of the NRL home-and-away season, meaning it will know exactly what it needs to do to play finals when it runs onto Leichhardt Oval to play the Tigers on Sunday.

Brisbane plays St George Illawarra at Kogarah Oval the day before, the Broncos needing to win to have a chance of knocking the Raiders out of the top eight.

Both the Raiders and Broncos sit on 28 competition points with one game remaining, but Canberra holds a crucial 46-point advantage when it comes to points differential.

It means the Green Machine just needs to match Brisbane's result to make the eight - barring a massive change in for-and-against.

But Rapana dismissed that and said they simply must win.

"We still need to win. Regardless of what happens with Brisbane and the Dragons, we've still got to win," he said.

"We spoke about this going into [the Manly game] - we need to win the next two games. That doesn't change anything. Obviously it will be a bonus if Brisbane lost, but we still need to win and win by a lot."

The Green Machine travels to Leichhardt with its attack finally kicking into gear following its 48-6 thrashing of Manly on Saturday.

It's a ground some Canberra players will have fond memories of - the last time they were there they smashed Wests 52-10 in 2016.

Rapana scored two tries that day - as part of the "Leipana" show with Joey Leilua - while Josh Papalii also scored a brace.

Papalii said the Raiders' departing players, who the club honoured following their win over the Sea Eagles, had inspired them - the likes of Josh Hodgson, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and Ryan Sutton.

"We had pressure on ourselves to perform and put a massive performance in, not only for the fans, but the departing players as well," Papalii said.

"These guys are a massive part of our movement back in the day and a massive part of our success story."

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Rapana was excellent against Manly, scoring a try, setting one up, running for 208 metres, making three line breaks and two tackle busts.

It's the sort of form that will have him in contention for the New Zealand World Cup squad at the end of the year.

"I'd love to be part of that squad, but I've got to make sure I'm playing good footy and staying injury-free," Rapana said.

"You look at the players in the competition with a Kiwi heritage and they're probably some of the best form players at the moment - Jahrome Hughes, Dylan Brown, [Joe Tapine], they've been killing it. We'll have a really good team and I'd love to be a part of that."

NRL ROUND 25

Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval, 4.05pm.

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