Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan said the Reds were brilliant in their first half against the Waratahs. The Waratahs came back in the second half, and it was a good game in the end.
"But the Reds have been impressive all year. They're playing an attractive brand of rugby. They've got some real speed, and some power up front. We've had our battles with them."
He said they were like boxers with different styles, and those styles could bring out the best or worst in each other. That is what he is expecting from them on Friday in Hamilton.
With only the prospect of a home game for the quarterfinal, McMillan said if they could get a win to advance, playing away from home was a fact of life because they hadn't been consistent enough in their performances to do better than that.
"But we're grateful to get a home quarter and to achieve that with about three weeks to go, so that's something to be proud of.
"Other teams have performed better and now we know that we've got to perform each week."
It had been frustrating not to be able to field consistent sides earlier in the campaign, but over the last three or four weeks, they have been able to achieve that. That gave him some confidence ahead of the Reds.
"We played the best two teams in the competition in the last two weeks and we were capable of winning both if we were more accurate and we had a little bit of luck go our way."
They could call on Anton Lienert-Brown and Tupou Vaa'i, who were back from All Blacks' leave.
McMillan said they were disappointed to lose to their arch-rivals but were proud of the side's willingness to stay in the fight.
"I know the scoreline probably doesn't reflect it but there was not a hell of a lot between the two teams."
He said there wasn't a lot of satisfaction in denying the Blues the bonus point that would have seen them finish No1 because it would mean they would end up back in Auckland playing the final in three weeks.
"Some aspects of our game were the best we've seen since probably the bye.
"The set piece, for the most part, was sound. Some fun and games were going on there, and they got a couple of good ones on us, but the battle was pretty good.
"They've been strong and physical through the middle of the park and we muscled up and gave as much as we got. We scored some nice tries and the fightback to come back and make the score respectable was pleasing."