Sebastian Kris vows Xavier Savage battle for Canberra Raiders No.1 jersey

And while he's at it, Kris wants to give Raiders coach Ricky Stuart as many selection headaches as he can.

From the team's perspective, Ricky headaches are a good thing.

Both Kris and Savage are at the heart of a raft of selection decisions Stuart has to make next week, with the Green Machine having the bye this weekend.

But when he has to name his Raiders team for their revenge mission against the Redcliffe Dolphins at Wagga Wagga next week Stuart faces a number of choices for his outside backs.

One of the key ones will be whether to bring Savage back in at fullback after the young gun got through his first game back - against St George Illawarra in NSW Cup on Sunday.

Savage scored a try playing on the wing and spent the final 15 minutes in the custodian role.

But Kris was excellent in the No.1 jersey in the NRL win over the Dragons - scoring a try himself, making a try-saving tackle, nine tackle busts, an offload and running for 185 metres.

The pair are good mates, but Kris said it was his job to make it as difficult as possible for Savage to reclaim his fullback role.

Stuart described Kris as a "footy player" - something that pleased Kris because he knew versatility made him an important commodity for the team.

"Healthy competition is only going to bring good performances to the club and to our team," Kris said.

And then with a cheeky grin he added: "I'll do my best to keep him out of it - he's going to work hard to get it back, I reckon.

"I'm happy with myself because I've added another string to the bow."

MORE RAIDERS NEWS

If Savage does come back in at fullback, then it could see Kris return to the centres or shift to the wing - forcing a reshuffle on the edges.

Canberra winger Jordan Rapana (concussion) is expected to be back to face the Dolphins after missing the Dragons win, while Nick Cotric (hamstring) will be in doubt despite having an extra week to recover due to the bye.

Kris could shift to the wing in place of Albert Hopoate - who ran for 165m and made three tackle busts, but had two errors.

Or he could come into the centres at the expense of either co-captain Jarrod Croker or Matt Timoko - both of whom also had good games against the Dragons.

All tough choices, but ones Kris said were only positives.

"I'll have to leave that one up to Ricky, but it's a good sign for what we're doing at the moment at training with our outside backs and our edges that it is working," he said.

"It can only be a positive that Rick's got headaches for picking a team right."

NRL ROUND NINE

April 29: Canberra Raiders v Redcliffe Dolphins at Wagga Wagga, 3pm.

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