Partners in lime: Unbreakable bond behind Leipana
Take a ride inside the crazy world of best mates Jordan Rapana and Joseph Leilua — all fireworks, tossed underwear and a drinking session too wild to repeat.
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As Jordan Rapana watched his best mate heading for the AAMI Park sideline a fortnight ago, shouting something about fireworks in an eye, the Canberra winger could think only one thing.
“Piss take,” he laughs.
Really? “Oh, that’s who Joey Leilua is,” Rapana grins.
But a piss take in your biggest game of the season?
“Yep,” the Canberra winger cackles. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Wonderfully, this is how things have always gone for “Leipana”, a rare rugby league partnership which, out on the Raiders’ right edge, has continually confounded — and often, completely annihilated — rivals thanks to the type of bond in which one guy thinks the other would fake injury in an NRL qualifying final.
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That, and the pair’s endless swirl of golf games, nights out, basketball stoushes, onfield arguments, even that endless away trip ritual of throwing underwear at each other. Although just on that last one, Leilua insists he is forever the victim.
“On away trips, I’ll be lying on the bed and suddenly be ‘what’s going on here?’” the centre shrugs. “And there’s Jordan, throwing his undies at my face again.”
And on it goes.
Some days, the boys and their families share a meal. Others, the pair tear shreds from one another at training.
There was even one winter a few years back when Leilua used every media interview to describe Rapana as “the anchor of our backline” — a subtle, yet relentless, dig at the small, anchor tattoo his best mate has inked on an ankle.
Yet now, sadly, we appear to find ourselves in the last days of Leipana.
On the eve of Friday night’s preliminary final against South Sydney, Rapana has been linked to a Japanese rugby deal, while Leilua is being pursued by the Canterbury Bulldogs — and likely, others — after being told he has permission to negotiate. But still, good luck the Bunnies ending them.
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Understanding that in a year when this Green Machine pairing has dislocated shoulders, busted knees, undergone spinal surgery, even copped a wayward firework to the face … well, like Christopher Lambert in ’80s cult flick Highlander, they cannot be killed.
And for proof, recall how in April, Leilua went under the knife for a herniated and bulging disc which, placing pressure dangerously on his spinal chord, could have paralysed the father-of-two.
Yet forget never walking again, the centre was back playing in 14 weeks.
Which now has us asking aloud how Rapana could ever doubt that firework to the face claim after running out for the qualifying final against Melbourne?
“Man, nobody believed me,” Leilua grins. “Not even our doctor. Leading up to that game, I’d had a few injuries. Rolled my ankle early in the week. So then with the eye, everyone just thought I was carrying on.
“Eventually I went off up the tunnel and the doc, he pulled my eyelid right up and saw the ash in there. But at the start, my eye was burning and no one believed me.”
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As for what Leilua makes of this Boy Who Cried Wolf tag?
“That’s exactly what they call me,” he laughs. “The Boy Who Cried Wolf. But I’m not. Well, sometimes I’ll take the piss. But mostly I’m being serious.”
Same deal Rapana, who was expected to miss up to nine months — and potentially all of this season — after dislocating his shoulder not once but twice last November while representing New Zealand.
Yet the Kiwi flyer, he too was back after just 12 weeks. Missed only round one.
“So ASADA, they then peppered me with tests,” the winger cackles. “Were here every second week like ‘bro, what have you taken?’ All I could say was ‘ahh, Maccas?’”
Which, again, is how crazily things tend to go for this superstar pairing who, before being introduced, seemed destined for the scrapheap.
Leilua, overweight and uninterested at Newcastle, while Rapana was a battling in bush footy, having already been cut by Super Rugby franchises Western Force and ACT Brumbies. Indeed, so lost were the pair before combining in 2015, Rapana was readying for a return to the Gold Coast concreting business which, owned by his old man, also employs four of his brothers.
But now?
“They’re all coming down this weekend, about 40 of them,” he says. “All think they’re staying at my place, too.”
Which, again, is wonderfully Leipana. But as for how the partnership was born?
“First day on the training field, we never spoke,” Leilua recalls.
But afterwards?
“Ah, we went for a few drinks,” he grins. “Then a few more.
“I’m not allowed to mention where, though, or I’ll get in trouble.
“Seriously, coach banned us. That’s all I can say.”
As for their famous golf games?
“I whip his arse,” insists Rapana, who plays off a handicap of six.
“And just like every footballer I’ve ever hit a round with, Joey plays golf like he plays footy. One day he’ll shoot three, maybe four over. Then the next, he’ll shoot 40 over. Very rocks and diamonds.”
To which Leilua says what?
“He beats me because he hits every single day,” the centre fires. “Guy’s an addict, has something wrong with him.
“Even if we have a four-hour break from training, he’ll go out and hit.”
But not you?
“No, I’m the opposite,” he continues. “I like to chill.”
So what chance there are days this rugby league Odd Couple get a tad, err, off one another?
“Oh, heaps of days,” Leilua laughs. “Every day. When we’re out there at training, we’re always arguing.
“Afterwards we’ll kiss and make up, but on the field, you should hear us.
“I’m telling you, they should strap a microphone on Jordan so people can hear him.”
So it’s your winger who does all the blowing up?
“Yeah, even though I’m the one who should be doing the talking,” he grins. “But Jordan does all the talking for our edge.
“It’s annoying.”
And still, Leipana succeeds anyway.
“We’re so tight off the field, it creates trust,” Rapana explains.
“A lot of times when you’re playing inside or outside someone, they might be hesitant to throw a pass or try something.
“But when you’ve got someone there you really trust, someone you know has your back, it makes things a lot easier.”
Leilua agrees.
“The partnership we have on and off field, it really is unique,” he says.
“We know each other by heart.
“Not only our likes, but dislikes too.
“So rooming together on every away trip … yeah, he pisses me off a lot.”