The Queensland Reds remain stuck at the Super 14 starting gate after losing their fourth match on the trot to a resurgent Chiefs.

The Chiefs roared out of the blocks at the beginning of both halves in front of their home crowd, leaving the Reds in their dust and struggling to play catch up.

The four tries to two, 35-17 triumph at Hamilton's Waikato Stadium gave the New Zealand team two wins from four games after a fruitless start to the season in South Africa.

Reds coach Jeff Miller said it was the most disappointing of his team's four losses this year "by a long way".

"We thought we had a chance coming over here," Miller said.

"They hit us with everything in the first 15-20 minutes - they turned up to play, we didn't turn up play," he said.

"I think we invested a fair bit of emotional energy in the first three matches of the competition and we just weren't able to replicate that tonight."

Five-eighth Stephen Donald scored 20 points for the Chiefs, including a try made in rolling maul after sacrificing a penalty goal to kick to the sideline.

Sosene Anesi, Sitiveni Sivivatu and Loki Crichton scored in more spectacular fashion for the home team.

Drew Mitchell and Caleb Brown touched down for the Reds in a losing effort.

The Chiefs established a 15-0 lead before the Reds got into their attacking half.

Their first try came as the back three combined nicely to create an overlap on the left wing - Mils Muliana and Sivivatu setting up a 20-metre run by Anesi with one man to beat.

After Donald's try, the Queenslanders got back into the game with a long diving pass by Sam Cordingley finding winger Mitchell on the sideline.

Up 18-10 at half time, the home side threatened several times early in the second half before a Sione Lauaki burst resulted in Sivivatu's try.

Loki Crichton's chip kick and run left two Reds defenders flat footed and he was able to run around behind the posts to seal the game for the New Zealand team.

Chiefs coach Ian Foster said his team had prepared well during the week and put in their best performance of the year.

"You've got to give some credit to the Reds. The first three weeks they've probably played better rugby than us and had no wins.

"Even tonight they showed they can play."

The Queensland side must now look to a home encounter against the lowly Western Force to chalk up their first win in 2006 ahead of a bye and a trip to South Africa.

"It would be nice to get a win to completely lift the confidence and anything can happen from there," Miller said.

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