NRL: Canberra Raiders pack, Josh Papali'i back for bruising encounter in against New Zealand Warriors in Auckland

Papali'i returns to the No.8 jersey after recovering from a hamstring injury, Pasami Saulo is healthy on the interchange after having to miss a game with concussion, and lock Corey Horsburgh brings his Origin form to the Green Machine for their match against the Warriors in Auckland on Friday night.

And no-one is more excited to have Papali'i back than Kiwi international and fellow prop, Joe Tapine.

"He's such an influential player," Tapine said. "Paps brings a lot of confidence being back and he frees me up to play my game.

"I love playing when he's on the field, even if it means taking less time on the interchange."

After the bye last week Tapine said the Raiders were "sharp and had a lot of power" at training ahead of meeting an equally bruising Warriors squad led by Addin Fonua-Blake, Mitch Barnett and skipper Tohu Harris.

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart has opted for a bigger bench to take on the Warriors in response, with props Emre Guler, Saulo and Ata Mariota named alongside hooker Tom Starling, which will keep Nick Cotric in NSW Cup another week.

Tapine scored his first try of the season in their nervy win over the Dragons, complete with a celebration dedicated to his three-month-old daughter Ilua.

Though Tapine was relieved to finally break his try-scoring drought, he said it's not always about how much he and Papali'i score, but how they can set up their teammates.

"Me and Paps have a big job of laying platforms for others to score," he said.

"I would love to score more if I could, but at the moment we're winning, so it doesn't really faze me if I'm not scoring tries. I was glad to get that one though.

"It was round 19 and I was thinking, 'Oh my god, I'm not going to score this year'. My wife loved the try celebration."

The 29-year-old is one of a handful of New Zealanders at the Raiders with extra family support at the Warriors game, which will be a boost playing in front of a passionate Auckland crowd.

Several Raiders have never played in New Zealand with COVID-19 forcing the Warriors to be based in Australia from 2020 until mid-2022, but Tapine knows what reception they're in for, especially with the fifth-placed Warriors in hot form.

"I'm looking forward to it," Tapine said. "The last time I played there was against Tonga last year, and it was a sea of red, so I'm used to being in front of a hostile crowd at home."

The Raiders were thumped in Canberra by the Warriors last they met, and have faded late in games recently, however Tapine believes they're taking steps in the right direction.

"We're still having hard conversations on what we need to fix," he said. "We're leaking more points than we want to.

"We're lucky enough where we are on the ladder that we can work on that from a good perspective and we're not panicking, but we've still got a lot of improvement to go."

New Zealand Warriors v Canberra Raiders, Friday 6pm at Mount Smart Stadium

Raiders team: 1. Sebastian Kris, 2. Albert Hopoate, 3. Jarrod Croker (C), 4. Matt Timoko, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Jamal Fogarty, 8. Josh Papali'i, 9. Zac Woolford, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead (C), 13. Corey Horsburgh. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Emre Guler, 16. Pasami Saulo, 17. Ata Mariota. Reserves: 18. Matt Frawley, 19. Nick Cotric, 20. Trey Mooney, 21. Hohepa Puru, 22. Ethan Strange.

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