George Williams relishing Canberra Raiders' Wigan connection

The return of John Bateman from shoulder surgery has not only helped the Green Machine, but Raiders halfback George Williams as well.

Williams leads the Raiders for try assists, producing two of his season tally of 10 in the Brisbane Broncos rout.

He threw a cutout pass for Jordan Rapana and his cross-field kick led to Bateman's try - although he could've raffled it with Curtis Scott.

The England halfback was also there in support of a Bateman break to score himself, his fourth of the season.

Raiders co-captain Jarrod Croker felt Bateman's return to the right edge was having a flow-on effect for those around him.

Williams, who played with Bateman at Wigan, was one of those benefitting. The right edge has also looked much better defensively.

That edge had become something of a revolving door at the selection table thanks to a combination of injury and form.

Croker hoped they could find some further consistency over the final six rounds.

"I think [Williams' form is] a mix of a few things," he said.

"Having 'Batty' come back and help - they've played a lot of footy together over the years.

"Having that consistent edge, having Curtis, John and [Nick Cotric] there for a couple of weeks and hopefully over the back end of the year they can stick together, barring injuries, they can play a lot of games together.

"George has only played 14 games with Jack [Wighton] and Charnze [Nicoll-Klokstad], and he's lost [Josh Hodgson (knee)].

"It's only raw having George here, but the last couple of weeks have been really good and it would be nice to get some consistency and string some games together with that right edge."

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The Raiders scored five unanswered tries in the second half of the 36-8 win over the Broncos.

Croker felt it could help springboard their attack over the final six rounds.

That starts against the Gold Coast Titans on the Gold Coast on Saturday.

The attack of the fifth-placed Raiders has struggled at times this season, but came to life on the weekend.

"Yeah I think so. I think we attacked quite well, I think we had three or four tries disallowed as well," Croker said.

"The attack felt good, but that all came back to momentum and having a lot of footy, having a lot of possession and we finished our sets well.

"They were on the back foot like we were in the first half."

Croker was excellent as part of that attacking effort and continued his superboot form, kicking six from six from the tee.

But he wasn't happy with his defensive efforts, missing five tackles - four in the first half.

"I was a bit disappointed to be honest. Nothing really in particular, probably more defensively wasn't the best," Croker said.

"They've got some strong players there - [David] Fifita and [Kotoni] Staggs they're really hard to handle.

"Probably defensively wasn't my best, not so much the contact and the energy more so the attention to detail.

"I felt good in the second half with 'Raps' over there. Something we've been working really hard at training is the two-on-one situation.

"I don't feel like I'm playing out of my skin, but there's certainly room for improvement."

NRL ROUND 15

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Gold Coast Titans at the Gold Coast, 3pm.