Two tries to unstoppable Blues prop Richard Holani helped the home side to a 24-22 win, after the Kangaroos threatened to steal an upset at the death before their final attacking raid petered out to nothing.

Taylor's side led midway through the second half after Kaine Pagura sprinted away to score in the left corner, but centre Bryce Lee's second four pointer and Holani's rampaging effort from close to the line extended the unbeaten Blues' winning run to five matches.

"It's good to get a good gauge, they're the top dog of the comp and we're not far off them, we'll get confidence out of that," Taylor said.

"It's not very often you have a loss and you can cop it, but we'll cop that one, a few things went against us.

"It was probably the first time we've played for long periods which was pretty good.

"There was just a couple of dumb things, a forward pass at the start in the corner was a try we should've had, a kick on half time I don't know what they were thinking but we'll learn from that stuff.

"We had a couple of handy players out too, we had our halfback out, and Woodsy [Aidan Woods] and [Michael] Cullen. We throw them back in, I'm looking forward to round two [against the Blues] already."

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A competition-wide bye will allow both injury-riddled Queanbeyan clubs a chance to nurse their playing rosters back to fitness.

Terry Campese's Blues are strong favourites to win the title this season, but the injured five-eighth said his side's effort and not their star power won them the game against their bitter rivals on Saturday.

"It just comes down to attitude and in this competition whoever turns up with the right attitude and puts in for each other gets the win," Campese said.

"This is what the derby's all about and it's good to see two Queanbeyan teams battle it out. It's only early days in the season, and next week we all get a week off so we rested a few blokes that were on the verge of playing.

"We're Just trying to save them for the end of the year."

CANBERRA RAIDERS CUP ROUND 5: Queanbeyan Blues 24 (Lee 2, Holani 2, Kimori-Edmond tries, Mitchell 2 goals) def Queanbeyan Kangaroos 22 (Dent 2, Pagura, Ngahe tries, Ingram 3 goals)

Yass Magpies 30 (Maher, Barrie, Timmer, Fattore, Davis tries, Davis 5 goals) drew West Belconnen Warriors 30 (Ayers 3, Thomas, Rushton tries, Graham 5 goals)

Tuggeranong Bushrangers 30 (Pollard 2, Mariota, Low, Kamuta tries, O'Malveney 5 goals) def Belconnen United Sharks 24 (Ngere 2, Singh, C Woolnough, M Woolnough tries, Rahme, M Lewkowicz goals)