Canberra Raiders' performance forced Ricky Stuart's selection hand

Stuart has revamped the Green Machine for their game against the Penrith Panthers at Penrith on Sunday, after he initially showed faith in his players - only for them to keep making mistakes on their way to a third straight loss.

Now they're looking to end their losing streak against a reigning premier who has won their past 20 games at Penrith Stadium - with the Raiders the last team to beat them there in 2019.

The Raiders have made more handling errors than anyone else in the NRL (68), which has resulted in the worst set completion percentage (69 per cent) and the fewest run metres (8555 metres).

That's forced Stuart's hand - bringing Harry Rushton onto the bench for his NRL debut and Xavier Savage onto the wing, while shifting Jordan Rapana to fullback.

Prop Emre Guler dropped out of the side and fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad has dropped to the bench.

"I get forced into these changes. It comes from performance. You get forced into making these decisions," Stuart said.

"I don't like these decisions, but I haven't got control of that - I've got control of making the changes.

"You get forced into making changes through performance.

"Harry and Trey Mooney have been our most consistent forward performers in second grade and he definitely deserves his promotion.

"I'm really excited for Harry because he's worked really hard at his game and continues to."

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One of the few players whose performance Stuart has been happy with was five-eighth Jack Wighton.

He said Wighton was in career-best form - just weeks out from State of Origin.

Wighton was thankful for the praise, but he was focused on turning things around for the Green Machine.

The 29-year-old put that down to simply enjoying his football.

That enjoyment has put him in the NSW Blues mix with Latrell Mitchell's hamstring injury opening the left centre role up for grabs.

It's a role Wighton's filled during his nine Origin appearances.

He saw taking on the table-topping Panthers as an excellent opportunity for the raft of young Raiders to test themselves.

There was talk from some sectors of the NRL media a few weeks ago that Canterbury picking half Kyle Flanagan to take on Penrith was akin to throwing him to the wolves.

But Wighton saw it as an opportunity.

"That's it mate. They're going to have to face it throughout their career and there's going to be tough battles," he said.

"It's going to be a great welcome to the game of NRL."

NRL ROUND SEVEN

Sunday: Penrith Panthers v Canberra Raiders at Panthers Stadium, 4pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Jordan Rapana, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Matt Timoko, 4. Semi Valemei, 5. Xavier Savage, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Brad Schneider, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Tom Starling, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Corey Harawira-Naera, 12. Elliott Whitehead (c), 13. Ryan Sutton. Interchange: 14. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 15. Harry Rushton, 16. Adam Elliott, 17. Corey Horsburgh. Reserves: 18. Hudson Young, 19. Matt Frawley, 20. Jarrod Croker, 21. Emre Guler, 22. Trey Mooney, 23. James Schiller, 24. Peter Hola.

Panthers squad: 1. Dylan Edwards, 2. Charlie Staines, 3. Izack Tago, 4. Stephen Crichton, 5. Taylan May, 6. Jarome Luai, 7. Nathan Cleary, 8. Matt Eisenhuth, 9. Apisai Koroisau, 10. James Fisher-Harris, 11. Viliame Kikau, 12. Liam Martin, 13. Isaah Yeo. Interchange: 14. Mitch Kenny, 15. Scott Sorensen, 16. Spencer Leniu, 17. Jaeman Salmon. Reserves: 18. Robert Jennings, 19. Chris Smith, 20. J'maine Hopgood, 21. Lindsay Smith, 22. Soni Luke, 23. Christian Crichton, 24. Sean O'Sullivan.

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