Stuart anxiously awaiting Havili diagnosis as slow start proves costly

Canberra will be sweating on scan results for a triceps injury starting hooker Siliva Havili suffered in the 28-12 loss to Penrith on Saturday night.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was unsure of the severity of Havili's setback post-match, which saw him leave the field in the 47th minute and fail to return.

Already without Josh Hodgson for the remainder of the year, any time spent on the sidelines by Havili will leave the Raiders with only two recognised hookers – Tom Starling and Kurt Baptiste – to choose from for next week's clash with Brisbane.

"We can't afford another one, especially a long-term one," Stuart said.

"[But] I don't know how bad it is. I hope he's not out for a week."

The Raiders were blown away by the Panthers in the opening 40 minutes but lost no admirers with a gritty second-half effort after trailing 24-0.

In a year where coaching sprays at half-time are at an all-time high, Stuart took a  more measured approach.

"My mood was OK at halftime, we spoke about [what] the situation was, it was no good me going off my head, that's not going to fix anything," he said.

"I asked them to lose that first half and win the second half – do that by scoring the first try and then back it up.

"I'll never doubt our character, that's never an issue, but I'm disappointed with how our first 25 minutes panned out."

The Raiders were gifted six sets on the Panthers' try-line to start the clash after a Jack Wighton 40/20, but failed to execute early.

From there, the Panthers rallied and marched upfield to lay on two tries in quick succession and set a tone for the match.

"There was just some smaller detail in our defence off, punching the ball down their end but they were just rolling through us too easily," Stuart said.

"You're going to keep giving them good field position by not executing defence correctly.

"We had a couple of poor reads and got a couple of tries through us. We're better than that but not tonight."

Stuart was not concerned about a high shot from John Bateman on Stephen Crichton late in the clash that may come under scrutiny from the match review committee on Sunday.

"It was a little bit high, I don't think it was too bad," Stuart said.

"There were a few high shots tonight. Hopefully he's OK."