Jack Wighton leading Canberra Raiders finals charge in NRL

Dunamis Lui simply calls him a freak.

Opposition players are forever bending the rules to impede his kick chase, or twitching nervously on their goal line when the Raiders' five-eighth decides to run the ball.

If Josh Papalii is the alpha male of the Canberra forward pack, then Wighton is the formidable general leading its backline.

"He's a big human if you haven't noticed," Nicoll-Klokstad said.

"He does a lot for our team, he's a really good talker, he's a really good runner with the ball and he's a really good director with his left edge too.

"More times than not he pops up where you need him to be as well. He's just got this aura around him, he knows where he needs to be.

"He's such a big game player, he's really evolved in the position that he's playing in, he only spent the first year last year there. I'm really excited to build on combinations with him."

Wighton touched down twice in four first-half minutes to help steer his side to a dominant win over Gold Coast last weekend.

It's an ominous sign for the competition, with Wighton's Raiders having scored 72 points in the past two weeks, albeit against lowly opposition.

But a month out from what's shaping as the club's first back-to-back finals campaign since 2004, the Raiders are finally starting to find some fluency in attack and Nicoll-Klokstad said there was more improvement to come.

"We're not playing our best footy yet, it looks like we're playing good footy because we're putting points on teams the last two weeks," Nicoll-Klokstad said.

"It still hasn't clicked for us yet, we're still looking at tweaking things that we can tweak in order to get us there.

"It's not as frantic out there, everyone knows what they're doing and when things go I guess a bit sour, everyone knows what we need to do to get it back on track.

"We're making those small changes and I'm really excited for not only individuals but as a team, where we're going in the back end of the season. A really big thing that we want to base our game around is defence, it's a good opportunity for us to put it into practice this week."

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Meanwhile, Canterbury skipper Josh Jackson says Luke Thompson is continuing to impress his NRL teammates with his work ethic despite the English recruit suffering homesickness.

Thompson is struggling to settle in to his new surroundings amid the strict NRL guidelines in place due to COVID-19, and in the absence of his partner who the Bulldogs are trying to get to Australia.

Despite arriving with high expectations, Test prop Thompson has yet to hit his straps but Jackson said it wasn't through a lack of effort.

"He's made a really big impact at training and we're really impressed with the work ethic he's brought and his performances on the field," Jackson said.

"It's a great sacrifice and something that we're really grateful for. It's a massive move at the best of times and then you throw in the pandemic that's happening and moving away from your family."

Jackson said the Bulldogs were trying to support the 25-year-old Thompson but were limited by the NRL bubble conditions.

"We can't take him for a coffee and get around each other but I think the best thing for him and everyone is being in at training."