NRL finals: Canberra Raiders forward Corey Horsburgh ready for Parramatta Eels challenge

That was the message they sent the rest of the NRL when Corey Horsburgh deliberately tossed Cam Munster's boot 20 metres after a tackle and Matt Timoko introduced the Storm captain to his palm with an incredible fend before scoring a sensational try last week.

Ahead of the Raiders' semi-final against the Eels at Parramatta Stadium on Friday, Horsburgh and the rest of Canberra's fearsome forward pack are taking that same mentality into the do-or-die match.

"I'm sure Munster would toss away my boot too," Horsburgh said. "That's footy, everyone loves a bit of banter.

"You've got to switch into a new gear. You've got to give it your all, you can't slack off, you have to keep going.

"When you get this far you don't want to pull up. We've just got to keep winning."

NSW Blues and Eels forwards Junior Paulo and Reagan Campbell-Gillard will present formidable opposition for the Raiders, but Horsburgh isn't afraid to run hard and take on the pair.

"I'll go for whoever runs at me," Horsburgh said. "Junior is a big scary fella, so it'll be good fun."

Horsburgh said Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has given him a licence to thrill since he returned to the team from pneumonia five weeks ago, and he's enthusiastically taken on that direction.

"Sticky has given me licence to play my game and big Paps too - that's playing tough," the Queenslander said.

"I'm feeling good and high on confidence."

While Horsburgh was in the thick of battling the lung infection for several weeks, vomiting blood and shedding eight kilograms, the 24-year-old thought his season might be over.

Dropping so much weight and losing his match fitness, Horsburgh had a lot of catching up to do and was concerned returning would hold back his team.

But Stuart and the Raiders staff supported Horsburgh to return better than ever.

"Surprisingly I feel normal again," he said. "The first few weeks I was struggling and was thinking about pulling the pin for the year because I didn't want to put the boys or the team in jeopardy.

"But I'm grateful that I did play and got my match fitness back."

Now Horsburgh is an integral part of the bench brigade alongside Emre Guler keeping the middle rolling behind the one-two punch of Meninga Medal winner Joe Tapine and Raiders veteran Josh Papalii.

"We talk about it every week - yelling at each other to run hard. We've got a good thing going and we want to keep it," he said.

"The Eels are a massive team and it's going to be a big challenge in the middle. Me and Em will come off the bench and we can hopefully match Paps and Taps and bring it to a new level."

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