The Canberra Raiders fullback was clearly hampered by some knocks to his legs last weekend, but was able to battle on and he was set to take his place in the No.1 jersey in the crucial game against the Gold Coast Titans on the Gold Coast on Saturday.

And Raiders coach Ricky Stuart revealed the 20-year-old had also been getting whacked around at training to help him get used to the contact at the top level.

Through all that, Stuart has been impressed with the improvement Savage has shown at the start of his NRL career.

"That's always there for fullbacks. It's just part of the development of a young footy player," Stuart said.

"He's a tough kid. He's been whacked around here at training as much as he does at games. That's the way we have to train at this level.

"His progression and development has been on an upward spiral every week and that's the good thing from a coach's point of view - you see the improvement weekly.

"You put 30-40 games into Xavier and that's when you're going to get a really experienced fullback."

Such has been Savage's development, Stuart has the luxury of easing fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad back into the NRL.

Nicoll-Klokstad's named as 19^th man for the Gold Coast trip, but Stuart said it wasn't an ideal time for the New Zealand international not to be playing.

He's coming back from a hamstring injury and played 80 minutes in the NSW Cup last weekend.

But the Raiders' NSW Cup side play St George Illawarra in Canberra on Saturday, meaning Nicoll-Klokstad could spend the weekend watching on from the sidelines.

That's at a time when the more minutes he plays the better he's going to be physically.

But Stuart has decided to have his 18^th and 19^th men fresh and no longer try to give them game time in the reserves.

MORE RAIDERS NEWS

"It would be more beneficial for [Nicoll-Klokstad] to get 80 minutes in NSW Cup, but I'm going to start using fresh 18th and 19th men because I'm disrupting the flow of second grade," he said.

"I'm trying to get players as much minutes as I can because no one likes to sit there and not play for the weekend.

"I'm going to try and rotate that around as best as I can, but injuries to our lower grades has just been horrific. I've got to take a pure focus on NRL now."

Stuart was able to name the same 17 two weeks in a row, with the Green Machine winning both games.

The Canberra coach said they were starting to bear the fruits of that consistency - especially in the spine of the halves, hooker and fullback.

He pointed to the fact halfback Jamal Fogarty and five-eighth Jack Wighton were starting to string games together as they continue their charge towards the top eight.

"You can see the way Jamal's combining with Jack, getting some consistency in training and playing together," Stuart said.

"It's just a massive help to your confidence of knowing the little idiosyncrasies of knowing the player playing inside or outside you."

NRL ROUND 20

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Gold Coast Titans at Gold Coast, 3pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Xavier Savage, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Matt Timoko, 4. Sebastian Kris, 5. Albert Hopoate, 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. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Ryan Sutton, 16. Emre Guler, 17. Corey Harawira-Naera. Reserves: 18. Matt Frawley, 19. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad.

Titans squad: 1. AJ Brimson, 2. Sosefo Fifita, 3. Phillip Sami, 4. Brian Kelly, 5. Patrick Herbert, 6. Tanah Boyd, 7. Toby Sexton, 8. Moeaki Fotuaika, 9. Aaron Booth, 10. Tino Fa'asuamaleaui, 11. David Fifita, 12. Beau Fermor, 13. Erin Clark. Interchange: 14. Jayden Campbell, 15. Herman Ese'ese, 16. Isaac Liu, 17. Jaimin Jolliffe. Reserves: 18. Sam McIntrye, 19. Corey Thompson.

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