The Canberra Raiders' rocky start has seen them slip to second-last on the NRL ladder after five rounds.

With the departure of Jamal Fogarty to the Manly Sea Eagles, it has opened the door for rookie Ethan Sanders to take the position of chief playmaker, partnering Ethan Strange, who has only just notched up 50 NRL games. 

It's made them a very inexperienced spine, joined by impressive youngster Kaeo Weekes and 138-NRL game hooker Tom Starling. 

The Raiders' only win this year has come in a golden point thriller in round 1, which saw Sanders stand up and win the game for the green machine.

Since then, the Raiders haven't been able to land a punch. 

As the club's halves pairing, it comes naturally that the duo of Sanders and Strange has come under fire for their side's start to the season; however, premiership-winning halfback Chad Townsend has leapt to their defence, saying on SEN that the learning curves will benefit them. 

“Sanders, after that round one game where he kicked that field goal, he probably hasn't had his best couple of weeks,” Townsend said on SEN League.

“I think Sanders defensively, he missed a couple of tackles yesterday when they had a man in the bin, and Dane Gagai gave him a big couple of ‘don't argues' in the chest.

“There's no doubt, as a young half, you're always gonna get targeted with your defence.

“You've got to get your body in front. You've got to give a genuine attempt, and hold on and wait for help.

“So Sanders (is) learning that the NRL, it is the toughest competition in the world, and sometimes you have really good weeks, other times you take some lessons.

“It's a good learning curve for Sanders and the demands of the NRL defence at this stage of his career.”

With Townsend claiming that all the tough teachings will benefit the young halves pairing for their illustrious futures in the NRL, he is confident that they will bounce back and make them stronger players down the road.

They will have to start working quickly, though, with the 2025 Minor Premiers losing touch closer with the Top 8 with every loss they encounter. 

Perth Bears assistant coach Ben Gardiner also agreed with Townsend's sentiments regarding the youthful pair.

“I think that long-term (Sanders and Strange are) their answer, and Ricky (Stuart) better than anyone knows halves, and he'll know whether they're up to it or not,” Gardiner told SEN 1170 Mornings.

“He's made the decision in the pre-season that they are up to it.

“Unless they commit the time to it, they'll swap someone else in, and they'll have the clunkiness that they've been having in attack anyway, so they're better off persevering with it.

“I even felt it last year at the Panthers, where Blaize Talagi was new, (Nathan) Cleary hadn't trained through the pre-season, nor had Dylan Edwards, and so there was this clunkiness around the combination, and they're world-class players.

“These are two young guys coming through and building their game.

“Obviously, they're gonna get brilliant coaching from Ricky cause he's a mastermind of rugby league… and I think that there's growth there.

“I think people would be frustrated with how they're going because other players are overplaying as a result of it, but I think that they've got to stick with it.

“The realism is what else do they have? Like, do they have other halves to come in?

“These guys are the ones that need to do the job for them.”

As a legend of the NRL and one of the Raiders' greatest halves, Ricky Stuart will know how to manage these up-and-down periods that young halves go through, and stick with them to work on getting back to their opening round form.

The Raiders will be hungry for two points when they go into battle against the South Sydney Rabbitohs in Perth at Optus Stadium this Saturday.