Schneider was dropped to the extended bench, with Matt Frawley at No.7. The more experienced playmaker kept his spot in the halves after an impressive few weeks filling in for Wighton while he was suspended.

"I'm purely giving Brad a spell. He deserves it. It's definitely not a performance thing, if anything it's a reward," coach Ricky Stuart said.

"We're fortunate that Matt Frawley is playing very well and it allows me to give Schneider a very well-earned rest. I'm not having him play second-grade this week because his mental and physical workload over the last 10 weeks has been phenomenal.

"I'm really proud of him. Defensively he was very good last weekend. I couldn't be happier with the way he's started his NRL career.

"Brad is going to be needed at some stage this year and I need him to recapture some energy physically."

Wighton accepted an early plea for a dangerous throw charge, forcing him to watch his teammates from the sidelines. However Frawley did well in his absence as the side won back-to-back games against the Bulldogs and Sharks in the Blues star's absence.

Stuart said the pair did not have much practice in pre-season at six and seven together, with the latter used in more of a utility role, but the coach was still confident in them combining well on Sunday.

"Matty's kicking game has been of a very high standard and he'll partner Jack this week," Stuart said.

"We're looking forward to having the injection of Jack again. The combination with Matty will be good for the team."

Meanwhile exciting, newly-blooded hooker Zac Woolford has retained his place in the starting lineup and will again work in rotation with Tom Starling coming off the bench.

Woolford was Adam Elliott's last-minute replacement for Magic Round, giving the 25-year-old his long-awaited NRL debut at the club his dad Simon once captained.

"I've rewarded Zac with starting and allowing Tommy to play his best game as an impact player," Stuart said.

"We got a lot of stability and rhythm out of Zac at hooker this week. The way he organised his ruck, his passing control was very mature. It gave us some good momentum."

Elliott was knocked about by a bad case of the flu last week, which has since also affected a few other players in the aftermath of Magic Round in Queensland.

"We've had to change our training schedule this week because of the impact this influenza is causing," Stuart said.

"We are taking a conservative approach in cutting down some time together in meetings, not being all in the same room and keeping outdoors as much as we can."

Stuart said they are "keeping a check on" players with symptoms.

South Sydney will be without star player Latrell Mitchell who flew to Philadelphia in the United States to seek specialist treatment on his pesky hamstring. Mitchell is expected to be out for six weeks.

Jacob Host is another omission for the Bunnies after aggravating an injury to his right shoulder last week against the Warriors.

The Rabbitohs have a handful of former Raiders in their ranks with bench specialist Siliva Havili spending four seasons in Canberra from 2018 till last season and Liam Knight playing nine games for the Green Machine in 2018 before being recruited by Souths.

Souths forward Tom Burgess said he is keen to face off against some of his countrymen in the Raiders squad.

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"I always look forward to the Canberra game because I come up against my Pommy mates," Burgess said.

"They're a great side. We've always had really tough battles against them."

Last week the Rabbitohs only narrowly held on against a fast-finishing Warriors, but young halfback Lachlan Ilias said they're counting on a more complete performance over both halves in round 11.

"It doesn't at all [worry us]," he said. "We've just got to get back to the basics."

Ilias described Wighton as "a great player", however the team are trying not to be drawn into "worrying about the opposition".

"He's an Origin player, but I think we've just got to worry about ourselves," he said.

"That's been our downfall the last few weeks."

NRL ROUND 11

Sunday: South Sydney Rabbitohs v Canberra Raiders at Apex Oval, Dubbo - 2pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Matt Timoko, 4. Sebastian Kris, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Matt Frawley, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Zac Woolford, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead (c), 13. Corey Harawira-Naera. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Ryan Sutton, 16. Xavier Savage, 17. Corey Horsburgh. Reserves: 18. Adam Elliott, 19. Brad Schneider, 20. Harry Rushton, 21. Adrian Trevilyan, 22. James Schiller, 23. Emre Guler, 24. Trey Mooney.

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