Canberra want to leave the chasing pack behind and solidify their spot in the NRL top four when they host Cronulla on Thursday.
The fourth-placed Raiders have been in the top eight all season but are just two wins clear of the 11th-placed North Queensland after 13 rounds.
Canberra can leapfrog the Sydney Roosters into third spot with victory against the sixth-placed Sharks, and both teams are chasing a third straight win.
Green Machine winger Jordan Rapana believes it will be won in the forwards.
"They're on fire too, they'll have a lot of confidence after they had an awesome win (against Parramatta) on the weekend, so they're going to be tough," Rapana said.
"It's going to be a massive game for our forward pack and bench. Their forward pack is one of the best in the comp so it's a big job for our pack but we're really looking forward to the challenge.
"We're all pretty close there on the table but we don't want to think too far ahead, we just need to get those two points before the bye because it will start to divide us from those teams."
Rapana has built a reputation for his formidable combination with injured centre BJ Leilua and said he can do the same with his replacement, NSW Blues winger Nick Cotric.
"Nick did an awesome job backing up from Origin, as did Jack (Wighton) and Josh (Papalii). BJ is a little way off so I'm looking forward to building our combo, we all know how wonderful he (Cotric) is in attack," Rapana said.
"He was buzzing coming back from Blues camp, he was full of confidence and so was Jack and Papa and you could see that wear off on us last week.
"Nick and BJ are both freaks in attack and for both of them the biggest part of their game is working on their defence but we kept (Wests) scoreless so you can't ask for much more."
