Coach Ewen McKenzie is refusing to talk about the prospect of the Reds breaking their Super 14 finals drought after guiding them to their best start in over a decade.
The Brisbane-based franchise have already notched three wins this term to equal their return for the whole of last season and moved to the brink of the top-four with a thumping 50-10 win over the Western Force on Sunday.
It was the first time they have strung together back-to-back wins since 2006, while it was their first win over an Australian rival in almost two years, and most notably, their most comprehensive victory ever at Super 14 level.
With a fluent halves pairing of Quade Cooper and captain Will Genia driving them forward the Reds have looked better placed than at any time during their eight-season wait for finals rugby to break into the top-four, although McKenzie is playing down any rising expectation.
"We want to be a competitive team week-in, week-out - we've never talked about ladder position, we've never talked about a number of wins and we won't be talking about that," he said.
"We'll just get out there and compete, we want to compete every week and let people know that we're serious about our rugby - that's all we've said and that's all we'll be saying.
"We've got a difficult tour coming up and we'll finish where we finish."
The Reds will enjoy a bye round this weekend and McKenzie admitted he would go into it contented that his side had proved a few doubters wrong.
"I'm happy, the start has been good. Nobody, except maybe the group itself, has predicted where we'd be right now," he said.
"I think we're still in contention in terms of the ladder, I'm not exactly sure where, but we've got a great opportunity to keep going.
"We're not fighting for credibility at the end of the season, we've got a great opportunity to push forward."
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