Jack Wighton has been running around in the green of the Canberra Raiders with Josh Papalii for more than 10 years, so a win in the prop's 250th NRL match was a special occasion.
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Wighton was outstanding in his return from a two-week suspension on Sunday and was instrumental throughout the 32-12 win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Dubbo's Apex Oval.
But the match, played out in front of 11,124 fans, belonged to Papalii.
The powerhouse prop is just the third Raider to reach the 250 game mark and there was no sign of slowing down on Sunday as he scored his side's second try, made eight tackle breaks, ran for more than 100m and made 28 tackles.
"This was exactly what we needed to do. To get the win for my big mate, I'm very proud," Wighton said after the win.
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Wighton are Papalii played in the under 20s together at Canberra and have gone on to play in an NRL grand final together, go head-to-head in the Origin arena, and represent their country.
Moments like that meant Sunday's milestone match meant plenty to both players.
"He's the king," Wighton said.
"We came down here at 16-years-old together and we've been through a lot together and to take to the park with him again tonight was awesome.
"He really deserved that one so I'm glad we got that one for him."
Raiders captain Elliott Whitehead also paid tribute to the Australian and Samoan representative prop post-game.
"He's one of the favourites here at the club and what he means to the club and the playing group is massive," he said.
"To get the win and put in a performance like that for him ends the week on a high."
Matt Frawley and Ryan Sutton were late withdrawals for Canberra after a week severely impacted by illness in the Raiders camp.
It was a really, really good performance under the conditions and the pressure we had on us this week.
- Ricky Stuart
You wouldn't have known training had been disrupted when winger Nick Cotric scored in the fourth minute and it wasn't long after Papalii showed his trademark brute strength to muscle his way over from close range and extend the lead.
His was one of four tries the Raiders scored in the first half as they raced out to a dominant 20-0 lead over a Rabbitohs side plagued by errors and ill-discipline.
The side from the nation's capital was the first to score again after the break when a loose ball was scooped up by Jordan Rapana and his flick pass led to Matthew Timoko wrestling his way over.
Souths finally gave Bunnies fans from the bush something to cheer about on 51 minutes when some ad-lib playing resulted in Damien Cook bursting through and running around to score under the posts but it didn't get much better from there.
Exciting youngster Xavier Savage - on at fullback after Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad suffered a hamstring stain - got the crowd up on their feet when he broke free from deep inside his own half and raced away to score and Rapana's conversion made it a match-winning 32-6 lead.
Alex Johnston added another tally to his record late on, but it was another day in Dubbo to forget for Souths after a 56-12 thumping at the hands of Penrith last year.
While the Raiders lost Nicoll-Klokstad to injury, the Rabbitohs' chances took a hit in the first when they lost both Junior Tatola and Taane Milne somewhat controversially to HIAs.
"It's disappointing," Souths coach Jason Demetriou said.
"We had a great week and I thought our prep going into the game was good and we had a bit of adversity to start the game and individually we were trying to solve it and that put a lot of pressure on our defence.
"We were under 60 per cent (completions) for the first half and Canberra completed high and did what they had to do. They were running harder and hitting harder than us in the first half."
Canberra coach Ricky Stuart was proud of his players at full-time after a week plagued by illness in the Raiders camp.
One half-a-day session was cancelled during the week while players were separated for most of the week and trained in different groups.
It wasn't until the captain's run the final 17 trained together and Stuart said it was a credit to all the players for how they came together after the testing build-up.
"That performance out there and that win after the week we've had with the flu and injuries, I had to pull two players out today on the day of the game," Stuart said.
"We had to change our whole schedule around because of the influenza and to try and protect the healthy ones. We had five blokes out of the final 17 train at different hours ... it was a really, really good performance under the conditions and the pressure we had on us this week."
- CANBERRA RAIDERS 32 (Nick Cotric, Josh Papalii, Hudson Young, Sebastian Kris, Matthew Timoko, Xavier Savage tries; Jordan Rapana 4 goals) defeated SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS 12 (Damien Cook, Alex Johnston tries; Blake Taafe 2 goals)