Canberra Raiders prop Josh Papalii looks for turnaround against NRL's No.1 pack

Papalii felt his own form wasn't up to scratch and he's determined to turn it around against what he rates as the best forward pack in the NRL.

The quietly spoken Raiders prop is averaging 146 run metres per game this season, but he only managed 83m in the loss to Manly on the weekend.

It has him desperate to put in a big performance against an Eels pack boasting ex-Raider Junior Paulo and former Australian international Reagan Campbell-Gillard.

Papalii has enjoyed a strong start to the season, with his average run metres only narrowly short of his personal best of 147.32 - set in 2019.

But he was part of a Raiders pack that was beaten by their Manly counterparts. The 28-year-old won't let that happen again.

"I think Parra's probably the No.1 pack at the moment. We still pride ourselves on being successful here," Papalii said.

"And I just think me personally I haven't been up to scratch yet and hopefully I can fix that on the weekend.

"I just need to be a bit better. I'm one of the old guys in the pack and these young guys look to the older guys to do something and hopefully I can do that this weekend."

If his golf game is anything to go by then it might be a very short dip in form.

The NRL bubble was relaxed for the first time on the weekend, allowing players to now take part in activities like golf and surfing.

And Papalii didn't waste a second in getting back out for his first hit since the season resumed.

"First day out we went straight to golf. Pretty happy with the way I played golf. I still won, so I've still got it," he said.

Parramatta sit on top of the ladder, one win ahead of the fifth-placed Raiders, but they've only won one of the past six encounters against the Green Machine.

They're one of the premiership contenders and part of that has been down to their forward pack.

Eels second-rower Ryan Matterson, who defected from Wests Tigers in the off-season, leads the NRL for offloads with 18, while Paulo sits in equal second with 17.

MORE RAIDERS NEWS

Papalii's wary of the second-phase football they've been able to produce.

It's especially dangerous with the new six-again rule for ruck infringements, which has seen teams get on a roll and become hard to stop.

"Junior's probably leading the offloads at the moment and definitely gets that second-phase going for Parra," Papalii said.

"They've got a lot of strike players on the edges as well so we're going to have to be on our A game on the weekend."

He was relishing a return to Canberra Stadium in a couple of weeks having played their past couple of home games at Campbelltown.

The surface at the Sydney ground has come under fire this week after three Manly players were injured on the weekend.

"It's had a few too many games on it now. It is a nice ground, but it's just a bit cut up at the moment. It'll be nice to come and play in Canberra," Papalii said.

NRL ROUND SEVEN

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Parramatta Eels at Parramatta Stadium, 7.35pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 2. Jordan Rapana, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Curtis Scott, 5. Nick Cotric, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. George Williams, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Josh Hodgson (c), 10. Sia Soliola, 11. Joe Tapine, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Corey Horsburgh. Interchange: 14. Siliva Havili, 15. Emre Guler, 16. Ryan Sutton, 17. Hudson Young. Reserves: 18. Bailey Simonsson, 19. Dunamis Lui, 20. Matt Frawley, 21. Tom Starling.

Eels squad: 1. Clinton Gutherson, 2. Maika Sivo, 3. Michael Jennings, 4. Waqa Blake, 5. Blake Ferguson, 6. Dylan Brown, 7. Mitchell Moses, 8. Reagan Campbell-Gillard, 9. Reed Mahoney, 10. Junior Paulo, 11. Shaun Lane, 12. Ryan Matterson, 13. Nathan Brown. Interchange: 14. Ray Stone, 15. Marata Niukore, 16. Oregon Kaufusi, 17. Brad Takairangi. Reserves: 18. David Gower, 19. Daniel Alvaro, 20. George Jennings, 21. Jai Field.