Four Canberra Raiders join NRL All Star cast

The 27-year-old was one of four Canberra Raiders named in the NRL All Star Squads on Wednesday, with Joe Tapine and Jordan Rapana joining Harawira-Naera in the Maori squad and Jack Wighton named in the Indigenous one.

Tapine, Rapana and Wighton only started their pre-seasons in the New Year, with Harawira-Naera predicting it might take them the opening rounds of the NRL season to find their feet after lengthy World Cup campaigns at the end of 2022.

It will be Harawira-Naera's third All Stars game, having played in the 2019 and 2020 editions.

He's loved the focus on the two cultures, with this year's game especially special as it's played in Rotorua - on February 11 - which was about an hour from where his father was from.

But it could be a costly exercise for the versatile forward - he's promised about 150 family and friends tickets.

"It's my best week I've had in footy since I've been playing ... knowing that we're representing our families and our people on a stage where two beautiful cultures come together," Harawira-Naera told The Canberra Times.

"Just the whole occasion is pretty special.

"It will be good to get this game not in Auckland, not in Wellington, not in the big centres, but somewhere a bit more rural where they're not going to get much rugby league in general.

"It'll be a good place for us to showcase our culture. I'm pretty excited to be honest."

Harawira-Naera expected boom Raiders prop Joe Tapine to have another big year - although he felt a late return to pre-season could mean he takes a few weeks to find top gear.

That also applied to the likes of Josh Papalii and Wighton, who also had big World Cup campaigns.

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Harawira-Naera tipped Tapine, along with Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, to be in the mix for the Maori All Stars captaincy again.

"They're coming off the World Cup this year so they might take a few weeks in season to get going," Harawira-Naera said.

"But [Tapine's] grown as a player and as a leader off the back of last year so he won't let his standards drop too far past where he was playing last year.

"It might take a few weeks for guys like him, Papa, Jacky Wighton, the boys that played in the World Cup, to get going again just because they've missed a fair chunk of pre-season."

Harawira-Naera said both he and his Raiders teammates were starting to get itchy feet to play again.

They did get their competitive juices flowing on Wednesday, with referee Ben Cummins coming to Canberra to officiate an opposed session and talk about the new interpretations.

Harawira-Naera helped his Raiders teammates learn you can't lock the ball in the scrum anymore by being penalised for doing exactly that.

"I learnt the hard way, but everyone learnt off my mistake. Had to be me," he said with a laugh.

"[Cummins] spoke about some of the interpretations. We'll see how it plays out come the All Star game and see how they're officiated."

NRL ALL STARS

February 11: Maori All Stars v Indigenous All Stars at Rotorua. Women's game 1.30pm, men's 3.45pm.

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