Last week it was Johnathan Thurston. On Saturday in Auckland, Shaun Johnson reaped the spoils.

The Canberra Raiders have found out the hard way in the space of a fortnight that giving a Dally M medallist and a Golden Boot winner a ton of ball is a recipe for disaster.

After Thurston broke their hearts with a late field goal last week, this time brilliant Warriors No.7 Johnson took advantage of playing on the front foot for most of the match.

Canberra enters its second bye next week with its season at a crossroad after the loss reduced it to a 6-9 season record.

But the Cowboys are the only current top eight team it will face for the rest of the year.

The Warriors ruthlessly exposed Canberra's left edge with four of their five tries coming down that flank, including a brilliant second-half effort from Johnson.

New Zealand 100-gamer Bodene Thompson celebrated the milestone with a try and terrorised Canberra's left centre Jarrod Croker, who shouldered the blame afterward for two one-on-one misses which gave the hosts a 14-8 half-time lead.

Given the Raiders only had four tackles in New Zealand's 20-metre danger zone and around 40 per cent of possession, they would have fancied their chances with a more level playing field in the second half.

However, much like the Cowboys where they made over 120 more tackles, the 101 extra they churned out against the Warriors took its toll.

New Zealand coach and former Raiders assistant Andrew McFadden was pleased to keep Canberra's potent attack to a single try.

"We kept the best attacking team in the competition to eight points and I thought we controlled the game for most of it," he said.

The Raiders didn't deserve to win. By their own admission their kicking game wasn't good enough and on the back of huge games from forward leaders Simon Mannering and Ben Matulino, the hosts made them pay.

"It was two individual  misses from myself, that's all they had in the first half," Croker said.

"It [playing Johnson] is just like playing Johnathan Thurston when you give him 60 per cent of the ball.

"It's tough going as it is, especially when you're not as clinical as you want to be, we've just got to be better.

"I'll never question our commitment, it was there again tonight, we've got to take our medicine and move forward."

Newcastle mid-season signing Joey Leilua made his Canberra Raiders debut, but the loss was compounded by yet another leg injury to luckless Raiders winger Jordan Rapana.

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart believes the bye has come at a good time given the defensive workload they've endured.

"Playing against two of the best halfbacks in the world, giving them that much possession [is going to hurt you]. It blew us away a little bit, there was a lot of energy put into that first half," Stuart said.

"We've got another bye this week, it's probably a good thing with the energy we've had to expend the last couple of weeks.

"They were more clinical than us. We've probably made enough tackles for four games in the last two matches if you look at the stats."

Paul Vaughan and Sia Soliola were strong for the Raiders, but the visitors' kicking game was sub-standard all evening, which only compounded their lack of attacking chances.

The visitors made around 80 more tackles in the match and on the rare occasion they had attacking opportunities, they looked disjointed and made several simple errors.

After soaking up the early pressure from the Warriors, they finally cracked when Thompson brushed aside Croker and Edrick Lee to score in the right corner in the 11th minute.

But midway through the first half the Raiders took advantage of their sole trip into the Warriors' danger zone, a short inside ball from Soliola putting fullback Jack Wighton over to level scores.

The Raiders took their only lead of the game through a Jarrod Croker penalty goal in the 27th minute.

However, Canberra's left edge was again soon exposed by the Warriors, centre Konrad Hurrell trampling over opposite number Croker close to the tryline before offloading to winger Tuimoala Lolohea for the four-pointer.

Despite dominating possession and territory for the first 40 minutes, the hosts had to be satisfied with a 14-8 half-time lead after Johnson slotted a penalty goal just before the break.

But a second try to Lolohea, Johnson's four pointer and an intercept try off a Sam Williams pass to Manu Vatuvei blew out the score in the second half.

NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS 30 (Tuimoala Lolohea 2, Bodene Thompson, Shaun Johnson, Manu Vatuvei tries; Johnson 5 goals) bt CANBERRA RAIDERS 8 (Jack Wighton try; Jarrod Croker 2 goals) at Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland on Saturday. Referees: Gerard Sutton and Chris Butler. Crowd: 13,110.