Joseph Tapine was a solid competitor in the Raiders forward pack in 2017 as he established himself as a key player towards the backend of the season.
The young New Zealand international only missed two games for the year with those matches coming in the Raiders Rd 2 match against the Cronulla Sharks and the Rd 3 match against the Wests Tigers, both at GIO Stadium.
In Round 9 against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs Tapine clocked up 122 running metres and made 22 tackles in only 39 minutes.
Tapine’s strongest performance in 2017 came in Rd 21 against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium. With Josh Papalii suspended, Tapine started the match in the second-row and produced a scintillating performance where he clocked up over 166 running metres as well as bagging a try whilst adding a line break and an offload.
As the season came to its conclusion, the Wellington born forward started to add more playing minutes to his game as he put in a number of 80-minute performances.
