Remember when the Warriors last played against the Raiders? Everything was honkidory with the Warriors putting in a winning performance to get fans excited, but since then each team followed vastly different paths as the weekly NRL grind got underway.

The Canberra Raiders have emerged as the NRL's biggest wildcard for the 2015 season, with a potency on attack that keeps opponents guessing and scrambling but they haven't shown enough on defence to truly emerge as the dark horse. But since that win for the Warriors, the Raiders have improved out of sight, which will blanket the Warriors current form with some context.

Over the past few weeks, the Raiders forwards have put their team on their backs with different guys standing up. David Shillington's form has earned him a two year deal with the Gold Coast Titans, a deal earned with some huge performances this season, before then he looked destined to head to England. Josh Papalii has been making a compelling case for a Maroons jersey while the likes of Paul Vaughan, Shaun Fensom, Iosia Soliola, Frank-Paul Nuuausala and Shannon Boyd have all been riding a nice wave of form.

But the Raiders will come up against a Warriors forward pack who have just seen what they are capable of, they've felt what it's like to put in a near perfect game. Which leads me to a question that I always find myself asking after an impressive Warriors win: can they back it up?

Can our forwards put in another herculean effort? We know Ben Matulino can, that's what he's done all season but Jacob Lillyman's 200 metre showing last week definitely feels like an outlier. But it can't be, we need Lillyman's muscle to punch through the middle and make a few dents in this big Canberra forward pack's defensive ling.

This also applies to Raymond Faitala-Mariner and Charlie Gubb with RFM sliding back to the bench to make way for Ryan Hoffman. Last week was a breakout game for both of these young lads and they enjoyed plenty of praise but how many times as Warriors fans have we seen young players unable to consistently perform in the NRL?

This isn't just a case of what I want to see, the Warriors will need most of their forward pack to back up their dominating performance against the Gold Coast Titans. Gubb needs to fire up, he's gotta ruffle a few feathers and be a dick through the middle of the field, because that's what the Raiders will do.

I'll be interested to see how RFM will be used. Both Bodene Thompson and Hoffman have been 80 minute soldiers all season so could we see RFM used as part of the prop rotation? Probably not, I suspect Andrew McFadden will probably give RFM the super weird 10-15 minutes off the bench which isn't really ideal.

Sticking with the bench and it's good to see Albert Vete back in the 17, he deserves to be there each week and he'll add a bit more aggression and skill to the forward pack. 

Siliva Havili was one of the few players who didn't really impress against the Titans and I mean, if Nathan Friend is good for 80 minutes, what's the point of carrying Havili on the bench if he isn't keen on stepping up to the NRL level? 

Keep that in mind for when Sam Lisone is healthy as a bench of Gubb, RFM, Lisone and Vete looks nice.

Friend and Havili will play their part, hopefully, in making life difficult for the Raiders forwards. They have shown all season that they leak plenty of points, but have been able to win games because they can also score plenty of points. If Friend and Havili can make the Raiders forwards have to do plenty of work around the ruck, expect the Warriors to reap the rewards out wide with plenty of metres made through the middle and quick play the balls.

That give and take of scoring points vs defence will put pressure on our outside backs to be on point. Joey Leilua is the elephant in the room as we don't really know how Ricky Stuart will use him/if he will use him but regardless, the Raiders have plenty of strike power on those edges.

Blake Austin is the key in all that and his running game will offer a big test for the Warriors defence. Austin runs the ball a bit wider, two passes wide with Sam Williams playing like a classic halfback, which means that our edge backrowers and centres are going to have many decisions to make. 

Will Austin run? Can we stop him?

Will Austin serve his outside men? Can we make a correct decision?

Will our wingers get up and in, either putting pressure on Austin and the Raiders outside backs or allowing them an opportunity with an overlap?

I don't think Shaun Johnson is going to want to be overshadowed in terms of exciting ball runners, which will make for an entertaining battle between Johnson and Austin.

The Raiders have plenty of attacking ability, enough to cause the Warriors a bunch of problems but the Warriors also have the tools to poke at the defensive weakness of the Raiders. I'm picking a pretty even contest but while last week I was eager to see whether the Warriors could find some mojo on attack, this week will all be about defence.

Can the Warriors stop the Raiders? Can they dominate the middle and defend their line?