The Newcastle Knights fullback has become a constant thorn in the Green Machine's side when he's wearing the No.1 jersey.

Stopping him will be a big key to the Raiders winning at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.

Ponga's played five games against Canberra in his 94-game NRL career, winning four.

That one loss came in 2019 when he going through his experimental five-eighth phase before returning to his more usual custodian role.

The 24-year-old has terrorised the Raiders' right edge when wearing the No.1 - scoring three tries, setting up another seven, making 25 tackle busts and averaging 163 run metres.

That's noticeably up from his Newcastle career average of 0.45 tries per game, 0.6 try assists and 146m.

Ponga's constantly tested the Raiders when combining with the Knights' left edge, especially off the back of a scrum.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said they'd done their research on Ponga and had put structures in place to help deal with him.

The problem was, the top players continue to back themselves to beat those defensive systems.

It'll be down to the returning Jordan Rapana, Matt Timoko, halfback Jamal Fogarty and co-captain Elliott Whitehead to shut the fleet-footed fullback down.

"He's a wonderful player and we do a lot of research on his game," Stuart said.

"We all know what he's best at, it's just a matter of trying to nullify it.

"We've got our defensive plans and structures to nullify that type of attacker, but like all the good players you've got a plan but the good ones they back their consistency of their skill.

"We've just got to make sure we turn up and do a job."

Raiders five-eighth Jack Wighton said it was crucial for the Green Machine to work together in defence - ensuring they're able to cover Ponga's injection into the attacking line.

"Tackling him is a good start," Wighton said with a laugh.

"We do a lot of work on those type of players.

"We know he's very dangerous and we have to be very connected and work together."

The 12th-placed Knights have struggled this season and were coming off the back of a 42-6 loss to the Penrith Panthers.

Similar to the Raiders, they had a seven-game losing streak at the start of the season, but they haven't really recovered.

The Raiders need to win to stay in touch with the top-eight, while a loss will see Newcastle draw level with them on 12 competition points.

Stuart warned against looking too much into the Knights' form and was simply trying to get his team playing the best they can.

That meant trying to remove the errors from their game that's been a problem at times this season.

"No I don't judge their past performances on how we want to play," Stuart said.

"I've got to prepare a football team to play our best game, no matter if it's the team on the top of the table or the bottom of the table.

"We don't prepare any differently and we're preparing to keep our journey alive.

"We're preparing to play our best game and that's why I don't look too much at the opposition in these situations."

NRL ROUND 15

Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Newcastle Knights at Canberra Stadium, 2pm.

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

Knights squad: 1. Kalyn Ponga, 2. Edrick Lee, 3. Dane Gagai, 4. Enari Tuala, 5. Dominic Young, 6. Anthony Milford, 7. Jake Clifford, 8. David Klemmer, 9. Chris Randall, 10. Jacob Saifiti, 11. Tyson Frizell, 12. Mitchell Barnett, 13. Kurt Mann. Interchange: 14. Simi Sasagi, 15. Leo Thompson, 16. Mathew Croker, 17. Pasami Saulo. Reserves: 18. Phoenix Crossland, 19. Tex Hoy, 20. Lachlan Fitzgibbon, 21. Adam Clune, 22. Hymel Hunt.

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