Centre Leilua and winger Rapana have forged a lethal partnership on Canberra's right edge, which continued in Saturday's 38-12 win over the Warriors.

Leilua is no chance of being picked for a maiden NSW Origin berth on Monday, despite being among the NRL's elite in several key categories this year.

Many experts believe Leilua's knack for producing an unforced error is preventing him from bursting into the representative arena.

Rapana and Leilua were standouts in Canberra's disappointing 40-16 home loss to Cronulla a month ago, which prompted Raiders coach Ricky Stuart to claim "we have a winger and a centre showing the whole team how to play".

They clearly also impressed Gallen, who is preparing for his final Origin series for NSW.

Ironically, Rapana said last year the signing of Leilua from Newcastle was huge motivation to lift and keep his first grade spot.

"Rapana and Leilua are probably the two biggest and strongest outside backs in the competition," Gallen told The Sunday Footy Show.

"He [Rapana] is a big boy, he's well over six foot and well over a hundred kilos – he's very hard to tackle.

"They come up with some errors at times, those two, which is probably their downfall.

"But I think they lead the competition for tackle breaks and run metres for outside backs. They're very good."

Samoa international Leilua has made 14 errors this year, which is equal seventh-highest in the league.

But the 24-year-old is ranked ninth in the NRL this year for line break assists (eight), many of which have been created for Rapana, who leads the league in line breaks (14) and is equal third in tries scored (nine).

Both are in the top five for tackle breaks, with Rapana's 58 bettered only by Rooster Shaun Kenny-Dowall (61) and Leilua (53) equal fourth.

Former NSW halfback Brett Kimmorley believes Leilua could handle Origin standing on his head if he removed the odd blunder from his game.

"Leilua has the potential to play Origin – he's such a good player," Kimmorley said.

"If you have a look at the size of the bloke it's unbelievable – and he can beat anyone. He could run 200 metres a game if he wanted to.

"But then you get the silly things which can come from him. I wouldn't go with him at the moment, but you could certainly say he would do it with ease."

The Raiders returned to the top eight after beating the Warriors, which came after two close losses to the Dragons and Panthers.

Skipper Jarrod Croker said the Raiders never lost their belief.

"The win's good, but we certainly weren't lacking in confidence or anything," Croker said.

"We put in a massive effort the last three or four weeks and just haven't got the results. We knew it was going to turn if we kept working hard."

Canberra's tenacious defence was a feature of their performance against the Warriors and it helped them to a commanding 22-0 lead at halftime.

Croker had a word of praise for the kicking game of Aidan Sezer and Blake Austin.

"I thought our halves kicked quite well and we defended off the back of that," he said.

"Our middles worked very hard and got off the line, and that just made life easy for the rest of us."