Canberra Raiders youngster Jeremy Hawkins faces a baptism of fire against New Zealand Warriors winger Manu Vatuvei in his first NRL game of the year after replacing the injured Jordan Rapana for Sunday's Canberra Stadium clash.
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Rapana, outstanding in Canberra's round one win, failed a fitness test on his strained hamstring and is the only change to the team which beat Cronulla 24-20.
Junior Kiwi Hawkins, who made his NRL debut last year and played the final three games, is charged with shutting down Vatuvei who has been dominant against the Raiders.
The 107kg giant has scored eight tries in his past three games against Canberra, which the Warriors have won by a combined score of 158-46.
Vatuvei scored three tries up against another Raiders youngster Brenko Lee in a 54-18 win at Canberra Stadium in round 21 last year.
The aggressive carries by Canberra's three-quarter line was critical in the Sharks win, and Stuart hopes Hawkins will pick up where Rapana left off.
"He got a chance last year and I thought he did very well, Hawko," Stuart said.
"It's a part of our team which has really grown with some new recruits and young guys in the back five."
Perennial slow starters, Canberra is looking to win its first two games of the season for the first time since 2005.
Stuart insisted their recent nightmares against the Warriors were not discussed during the week.
"We were very, very poor defensively [against the Warriors] last year," Stuart said.
"They're a very good football team, but I like to think we're a better football team today than we were this time last year.
"I'm really happy where we are in our growth, development and rebuilding as a footy team.
The Raiders have stuck with the mobile forward pack which proved so effective against the Sharks, with former representative prop David Shillington playing NSW Cup on Saturday for the second straight week.
However young front-rower Shannon Boyd, originally named in the Mounties team, took part in Canberra's training run on Saturday morning.
He could be 18th man against the Warriors or a possible late replacement for Luke Bateman or Dane Tilse, who is in line to play his 200th NRL game.
"It wasn't so much a risk but it was a change of team we thought was best suited for that game," Stuart said.
"It worked for game one, I thought Josh [Hodgson, hooker] in the middle was very influential with our go forward and mobility.
"The game has sped up a lot around the ruck, that's something we look at each week now."
The Cronulla win has boosted confidence at Canberra, which is looking to make finals for the first time since 2012.
But in a dose of reality the Sharks were terrible in a 10-2 home loss to Brisbane on Friday night, and Raiders utility Josh McCrone said they're not getting carried away.
"We understand Cronulla played into our hands a little bit with their completion rate so we're not getting too excited," McCrone said.
"It's definitely a step in the right direction, but we have a lot to work on."
SUNDAY
NRL round two: Canberra Raiders v New Zealand Warriors at Canberra Stadium, 6.30pm
Tickets available from Ticketek
TV: Live on Fox Sports 1
