Canberra's 38-12 ambush of the New Zealand Warriors on their home turf kick-started their current stretch of six wins from seven games, putting them just a point outside the top four.

It was arguably the Warriors' worst display of the season, prompting coach Andrew McFadden to publicly attack the display as "soft", "embarrassing" and declared "I need to find people willing to put their body on the line".

Despite their golden-point loss to Manly, the Warriors responded well by winning four of their next six games to squeeze back into the top eight.

Canberra mid-season recruit Junior Paulo watched that game from his couch and is looking forward to the battle between two of the NRL's biggest forward packs at Canberra Stadium on Saturday.

He said shoring up a finals berth won't be the Warriors' sole motivation. They'll want revenge for the New Plymouth massacre.

A win would put the Raiders inside the top four given the two sides ahead of them by a point, North Queensland and Canterbury, play each other on Thursday.

"I wasn't part of the [Raiders] team at the time but I watched that game and the boys put on a clinic, they'll remember that," Paulo said.

"They're a massive forward pack as well. This bye couldn't have come at a better time for us to get away from football and come back fresh for the Warriors.

"They've been on fire the last few weeks and during the Origin period is where they usually find their stride.

"We'll have to match it with their forwards and we've strung together good wins down here compared to last year, hopefully we can keep that going."

They're one of the biggest front row combinations the NRL has seen in decades, 245kg of raw intimidation.

But Paulo isn't fussed whether he and Shannon Boyd work in tandem or not as Canberra faces a selection headache.

With Luke Bateman (suspension) and Josh Papalii (injury) expected to be available this week, the Raiders could unleash a forward blitzkrieg.

In-form bench utility Kurt Baptiste (foot) is out for six weeks, giving coach Ricky Stuart the option of playing four forwards on the bench against a similarly imposing Warriors pack.

Stuart traditionally favours carrying an interchange utility and the Raiders haven't fielded an all back-row and front-row bench since he took charge in 2014.

Canberra started with Paulo and Boyd, the third biggest starting front-row in the NRL in 35 years, in their last-start win over North Queensland.

The week before against Newcastle Paul Vaughan started with Paulo injected into the game midway through the first half.

"We've got a lot of depth in the forwards and each forward has got their own qualities," Paulo said.

"It depends who we play week-in, week-out. I'm happy to do my job and work on combinations with any of the other three forwards.

"We've been rolling with the punches and it's been working for us. It's a tight group here, it doesn't matter who's starting or coming off the bench."

While the Raiders have put their feet up with a bye, the Warriors endured a torturous 5300km, seven-hour flight to Perth, where they lost a thriller to Manly in horrendous conditions.

NRL — ROUND 20

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v New Zealand Warriors, Canberra Stadium, 3pm. Tickets. TV: Fox Sports 1.