English Canberra Raiders sticking the boot in for try time

The Canberra Raiders have four Englishmen in their squad - with a fifth in Wigan half George Williams potentially on the way if a transfer fee can be finalised - and it's seen the Green Machine's soccer skills go to the next level.

Last week Raiders second-rower John Bateman grubbered ahead twice to set up a brilliant try of his own.

Then this week Elliott Whitehead and Nick Cotric got in on the act - Whitehead with a brilliant flick off his boot to put Bailey Simonsson away, while Cotric's soccer was perfectly placed for Jordan Rapana to score.

It's come from them mucking around before training, given how big soccer is back in England, while Cotric played as a youngster.

"We have a bit of a laugh at training, practice little kick ups and keeping the ball off the ground so it's been good," Whitehead said.

"A few us before training, we have a bit of a kick around. [Friday] it's come in handy, but I thought we did really well completing our sets and finishing in corners that we spoke about all week."

The Raiders have kept three teams scoreless so far this season - a first in the NRL club's history.

Whitehead joked it was the "Bateman effect", with the England international joining the club in the off-season.

Back-to-back wins have returned the Raiders to the NRL top four and they face another finals contender in the Cronulla Sharks at Canberra Stadium on Thursday night.

"We want to be there or thereabouts. No one was really talking about us when we were losing a couple of games, we went off the boil there for a while," Bateman said.

"We just want to keep knocking these wins off, it doesn't matter how we get the wins, it's just about the wins at the end of the game."

NRL ROUND 14

Thursday: Canberra Raiders v Cronulla Sharks at Canberra Stadium, 7.50pm.