The Canberra Raiders have paid tribute to Jordan Rapana after the veteran’s NRL career was all but ended by a facial fracture.
The 35-year-old revealed late last week that he would depart for Super League club Hull FC at the end of the season, meaning he missed out on a formal farewell at the Raiders’ final home game days earlier.
But his hopes of contributing to Canberra’s last-ditch bid to make the top eight were ended 10 minutes into Sunday’s 14-12 win over the Sydney Roosters.
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Rapana stood firm to catch a high ball but was met by a leaping Roosters fullback James Tedesco, whose elbow smashed into his Raiders counterpart’s face.
Rapana was penalised under the rules prohibiting tackles in the air — and it soon became clear he had more pressing matters.
By the time he was pictured again his face had blown up while his broken nose was pouring blood.
Removed from the game, he spent Sunday night in hospital with what Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said was a fractured eye socket or cheekbone.
Rapana will now leave the Raiders without being feted after a game.
“It’s disappointing. We sent both of the boys out last week in regards to our last home game, Elliott and Jordan. We didn’t know Jordan was going,” Stuart said on Sunday night.
“We sent Elliott out in a nice way. Jordan didn’t get that opportunity the way that Elliott did, going off with injury. But he can be proud that he was involved in that game today for some small minutes.”
Barring a miracle set of results to end the season and early in the NRL finals, Rapana will not suit up for the Raiders again.
He made over 200 first-grade appearances, scoring 111 tries, since debuting one week before his 25th birthday — six years after his first NRL games for the Gold Coast Titans.
Rapana played on the wing in the Raiders’ 2019 grand final appearance against the Roosters and made several international appearances for New Zealand.
“I am shattered if that was his last game, but I am happy I got to share the field with him for so long,” long-time Canberra and Kiwis teammate Joe Tapine said.
“Every game he is so competitive, he will blow up at anyone. It doesn’t matter who you are. But off field he is a legend of a bloke.”
Raiders captain Elliott Whitehead is also set to leave the club in disappointing circumstances.
The 34-year-old will join the Super League’s Catalans Dragons next season fresh off a ban from the NRL.
Whitehead was hit with three separate charges from the game, the biggest punishment — a three-match suspension — stemming from a hip-drop tackle on Brandon Smith.
The ban would be a disappointing way for the 205-game veteran to go out, after being one of the Raiders’ most reliable players for the past decade.
His last act in the NRL would also be a post-match spat with Trent Robinson, after the Roosters coach accused him of being a serial hip-drop merchant on Sunday.
“I went to apologise, and he’s turned on me, so the way he’s done that I thought (he) was out of order,” Whitehead said.
Robinson was reluctant to address the incident in his own post-match press conference.
“He came up and just wanted to ask how Brandon was, and I just said it was too many times,” Robinson said.
“The hip-drop’s been pretty common in his game for a long time, and I just said it’s too many times. It’s cost us a player.”
Raiders teammates have since rushed to the defence of Whitehead, with Tapine adamant there is no malice in the Englishman’s game.
“He just competes, and sometimes in rugby league unfortunate things happen,” Tapine said.
“I don’t think anyone purposely goes out and hip drops anyone, because it is a really serious injury if you do it.
“I know Elliott doesn’t have that malice in him, it’s unfortunate.
“When you’re fatigued and trying to pull them down, sometimes you can fall in an awkward position. It’s just trying to avoid it is pretty tough.”
– with AAP
