Brisbane back-rower Alex Glenn believes young gun David Fifita is the man to stop St George Illawarra powerhouse Tariq Sims in Thursday night’s NRL clash at Suncorp Stadium.

A barnstorming Sims inspired the Dragons’ 48-18 demolition of the Broncos in the 2018 elimination final.

Brisbane had no answer to the hulking back-rower who stunned the Suncorp Stadium crowd with a first-half hat-trick.

But veteran Glenn has backed 19-year-old Fifita to meet the daunting challenge when he goes head-to-head with NSW forward Sims in their round three re-match.

“You look at what David Fifita has brought to our team, he has the same capabilities as Tariq Sims,” Glenn said.

“He’s got a strong game, good footwork and defends well.

“I think for him being a young player coming through, that is a big challenge for him.”

Fifita seemed far from fazed by the prospect of staring down Sims.

“I like coming up against the big dogs,” he said.

“Tariq will be on my side, he will be coming at us hard. We will see.”

Brisbane’s young pack are still buzzing from dominating North Queensland in last week’s 29-10 win after a powerhouse first half display by Tevita Pangai.

But Glenn said they were wary of a Dragons side that has suffered a winless season start, predicting another stirring Sims-inspired effort that sealed their runaway 2018 finals win.

“Last year they came up here and thumped us in the first week of the finals,” Glenn said.

“They wanted it more. It will be the same this week. They have had two tough losses and they will want to rectify that, come up here and prove a point.

“We have to make sure we back up our actions from last week. We can’t get comfortable otherwise otherwise the same thing will happen that did last year.”