Canberra Raider hopes Charnze to see boys comes after NRL grand final

The Canberra Raiders fullback is just hoping it's not until after the NRL grand final.

It's about two months since Nicoll-Klokstad has seen his two sons Rio and Kyrie, who are back in his country of birth.

While he's desperate to see them again, he doesn't want his season to end after the Raiders' preliminary final against the Melbourne Storm at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.

Much better if it's after back-to-back NRL grand finals.

Nicoll-Klokstad's form has been a big reason they're just 80 minutes away from making that happen.

He was immense in the semi-final win over the Sydney Roosters last week, running for 253 metres, making a linebreak and a try save on his was to chronic calf cramps - and victory.

The Kiwi international turned to an acupen at the start of the week to help ensure there's no repeat of those cramps against the Storm.

It's about leaving no stone unturned.

Not being with his boys has made the Apollo bubble a bit harder to handle, although he's had new teammate and fellow Kiwi Corey Harawira-Naera move in instead.

He's grateful to even be playing, given the coronavirus pandemic is still circling the world.

"It has its moments. Obviously a little bit harder with the kids being away," Nicoll-Klokstad said.

"I've been a part of their life day-in, day-out so to go from that to them being away it's a little bit different.

"I just figured if I'm going to purposely be away I might as well [give] that time I was giving to them to rugby league.

"As soon as the season finishes - hopefully in two weeks I'll head over, but whenever our season's finished."

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Nicoll-Klokstad also has his Christian faith to turn to.

While he's unable to go to church - players in the NRL bubble are only allowed to go from home to training or to games and back again - the advent of video-conferencing platforms like Zoom has helped.

It's led to him Zooming across the Ditch for a weekly bible study group.

He's also picked up a few new friends along the way.

"It's been about four months now. Every week I've been catching up for one or two hours with a bunch of boys back home," Nicoll-Klokstad said.

"It's just giving us an opportunity to dive into the bible and the word of God. I've got a lot out of that.

"I've got to meet a few people via that Zoom and become good mates through the group so there's a lot to take out of that."

NRL PRELIMINARY FINAL

Friday: Canberra Raiders v Melbourne Storm at Suncorp Stadium, 7.50pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 2. Semi Valemei 3. Jarrod Croker (c) 4. Jordan Rapana 5. Nick Cotric 6. Jack Wighton 7. George Williams 8. Josh Papalii 9. Tom Starling 10. Sia Soliola 11. John Bateman 12. Elliott Whitehead 13. Joe Tapine. Interchange: 14. Siliva Havili 15. Dunamis Lui 16. Hudson Young 17. Corey Harawira-Naera. Reserves: 18. Sam Williams 19. Matt Timoko 20. Ryan Sutton 21. Michael Oldfield.

Storm squad: 1. Ryan Papenhuyzen 2. Suliasi Vunivalu 3. Brenko Lee 4. Justin Olam 5. Josh Addo-Carr 6. Cameron Munster 7. Jahrome Hughes 8. Jesse Bromwich 9. Cameron Smith 10. Christian Welch 11. Felise Kaufusi 12. Kenneath Bromwich 13. Nelson Asofa-Solomona. Interchange: 14. Brandon Smith 15. Tino Fa'asuamaleaui 16. Tom Eisenhuth 17. Nicholas Hynes. Reserves: 18. Dale Finucane 19. Paul Momirovski 20. Ryley Jacks 21. Chris Lewis.