Rapana ready to bring Semi to a halt

Canberra winger Jordan Rapana is confident he has enough brake horsepower to stop Parramatta’s Semi-Trailer in his tracks.

Semi Radradra has been at his damaging best for the Eels so far this NRL season, scoring two tries and averaging 137 running metres a game after five rounds.

The Fijian flyer – tipped to make his Kangaroos debut later this year – has developed a formidable partnership with Michael Jennings.

The pair will line up against Rapana and centre Joey Leilua when the third-placed Raiders play the Eels in Saturday’s clash at Pirtek Stadium.

Radradra scored a double the last time the two sides met in last year’s final regular season round, which the Raiders won 28-24 win in golden point extra time.

But Rapana is confident there’ll be no repeat.

“I’m confident I’ll be able to keep him try-less, hopefully, he said.

“We’ve done the training and I’ve put in hard work this pre-season.”

Rapana is buoyed his effort and that of Leilua in containing Josh Morris and Curtis Rona in Monday night’s surprise win over Canterbury – both of whom he labelled “try-scoring machines”

“BJ (Leilua), especially, did well to handle Josh Morris,” he added.

“I think if we can continue to defend the way we did last week, we should have no troubles.”

The Raiders are aiming for their third straight win over the Raiders for the first time in club history.

They’ve won six of their past seven battles, but face an Eels outfit reeling from a last-second loss to Penrith.

“Every team’s fired up especially after a loss,” Rapana said.

“But we’re just as fired up because we know it’s going to be a tough game, so we’re ready for it.”

Rapana is hoping the NRL-paid flights back to Canberra straight after Monday night’s game will help ease any fatigue from the short five-day turnaround.

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