'If we lose two you'll say we're shit': Raiders swat away favourites tag

The Canberra Raiders halfback has been showered in compliments since his starring role in the NRL restart last weekend, guiding the Green Machine to a convincing win against the Storm.

His try assists and thumping defence caught the eye of everyone outside of the capital, Brad Fittler hailing Williams as "flawless" and Sydney journalists keen to pick his brain via Zoom on Tuesday.

But Williams knocked them all back just like he did to Ryan Papenhuyzen, more worried about the tackles he missed than the flood of accolades.

"It was only my third game, I'm not getting carried away," Williams said through a thick northern English accent. "I enjoyed it. I had a few nice touches but you guys probably won't see that I missed a few tackles as well. That's what I want to improve on.

"It was one good game. I've got to back it up now ... I got a bit lucky with the [Papenhuyzen hit] and luckily it looked good. I'm not the biggest bloke so I've got to give it a good crack.

"It's obviously a new team. I knew it wasn't going to happen straight away, I've played one good game and everyone's over the moon about it but I've got to back it up now."

Williams' attitude mirrors that of the Raiders, who as a team are refusing to believe the round-three hype about their premiership credentials.

Some have installed them as the runaway favourites to end a premiership drought after beating the Storm, New Zealand Warriors and Gold Coast Titans in a stretched-out opening to the season.

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If they beat the Newcastle Knights in Campbelltown this week, it will be just the fourth time they've won the first four games of a season in the club's history.

Coach Ricky Stuart has made just one change to the winning formula, adding Bailey Simonsson back to the starting side after a leg infection ruled him out of last weekend. Jordan Rapana moves to the bench, but John Bateman's return is still on ice.

"[Favouritism] isn't something we look at," said back-rower Elliott Whitehead. "We've got Newcastle this week and they've started the season great.

"All of our focus is on that, we won't listen to the outside noise because we could lose the next two games and you'd all be saying we were shit. It's something [Stuart] speaks to us about, keeping our heads down.

"We've got a lot of improvement left in us, so we'll be focusing on trying to do that this week."

Whitehead made sure Williams' feet were on the ground, too, when asked about if he was surprised by the halfback's hit on Papenhuyzen. "Yeah, because I run over him every day at training so it was a bit of a shock," Whitehead grinned.

NRL ROUND FOUR

Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Newcastle Knights at Campbelltown, 4.05pm.

Raiders team: 1. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 2. Bailey Simonsson, 3. Jarrod Croker, 4. Curtis Scott, 5. Nick Cotric, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. George Williams, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Josh Hodgson, 10. Dunamis Lui, 11. Joe Tapine, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Corey Horsburgh. Interchange from: 14. Siliva Havili, 15. Emre Guler, 16. Sia Soliola, 17. Jordan Rapana, 18. Tom Starling, 19. Matt Frawley, 20. Kai O'Donnell, 21. Michael Oldfield.

Knights team: 1. Kalyn Ponga, 2. Edrick Lee, 3. Enari Tuala, 4. Bradman Best, 5. Hymel Hunt, 6. Kurt Mann, 7. Mitchell Pearce, 8. David Klemmer, 9. Andrew McCullough, 10. Daniel Saifiti, 11. Aidan Guerra, 12. Sione Mata'utia, 13. Herman Ese'ese. Interchange from: 14. Tex Hoy, 15. Jacob Saifiti, 16. Tim Glasby, 17. Brodie James, 18. Gehamat Shibasaki, 19. Chris Randall, 20. Mason Lino, 21. Pasami Saulo.