Elliott Whitehead proves to be man of steel ahead of Battle of Britain

Whitehead will bring up the milestone in front of a sold-out preliminary final against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Canberra Stadium on Friday.

That's not the only English milestone coming up.

It's also shaping as the Battle of Britain, with up to seven Poms running out in front of 28,000 fans - not to mention England coach Wayne Bennett sitting in the stands in charge of the Rabbitohs.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has named four of them - hooker Josh Hodgson, second rowers Whitehead and John Bateman, while Ryan Sutton's on the extended bench.

For Souths, there's the three Burgess brothers - Sam, Thomas and George.

If Sutton gets brought into the Raiders' 17 then all seven will play and it will be a new record for Englishmen in an NRL game.

It would break the existing record of six, which was set when the two teams met at Canberra Stadium back in round 10.

Bateman was out injured that day with a fractured eye socket.

If Sutton misses out, then it will equal that record, but set a new finals record.

But it meant nothing to Whitehead, whose only focus was on the game and a potential spot in the grand final, ending a 25-year Raiders drought in the process.

"It is good to have us all out there and there's Wayne as well, but it's not about England it's just about this club and taking it one step further as a group like we spoke about at the start of the year," Whitehead said.

"You lot can talk about the Battle of Britain all you want, but it's up to us to do our job and hopefully we can do that on Friday."

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He had a similar mindset about his milestone.

"It's a nice achievement for myself. I didn't think I'd make 100 games as fast as I have," Whitehead said.

"At the end of the day this week's not about me it's about us as a team.

"What we've built all year we want to keep on building and go one step further to winning the grand final."

Whitehead will go head to head with Rabbitohs captain Sam Burgess on the Raiders' left edge.

It pits one England international against another, and two of the best forwards in the NRL.

Burgess has spent recent seasons at lock for the Rabbitohs, but Bennett has switched him back to the second row in 2019.

While he's renowned as one of the top enforcers in the game, Whitehead's not daunted and was backing himself to get the job done for the Green Machine.

"I love coming up against quality players and Sam's probably right up there with the best," he said.

"It will be a big challenge for me, but I've got the confidence and belief in myself that I'm capable of stopping him."

NRL PRELIMINARY FINAL

Friday: Canberra Raiders v South Sydney at Canberra Stadium, 7.50pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Joey Leilua, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Josh Hodgson (c), 10. Sia Soliola, 11. John Bateman, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Joe Tapine. Interchange: 14. Bailey Simonsson, 15. Emre Guler, 16. Corey Horsburgh, 17. Dunamis Lui. Reserves: 18. Sam Williams, 19. Ryan Sutton, 20. Siliva Havili, 21. Sebastian Kris.

Rabbitohs squad: 1. Adam Doueihi, 2. Alex Johnston, 3. James Roberts, 4. Dane Gagai, 5. Campbell Graham, 6. Cody Walker, 7. Adam Reynolds, 8. Thomas Burgess, 9. Damien Cook, 10. Liam Knight, 11. John Sutton, 12. Sam Burgess (c), 13. Cameron Murray. Interchange: 14. George Burgess, 15. Junior Tatola, 16. Ethan Lowe, 17. Mark Nicholls. Reserves: 18. Jaydn Su'A, 19. Corey Allan, 20. Dean Britt, 21. Mawene Hiroti.