Same, same for Reds says frustrated Stiles

Inaccuracy at the tackle and an inability to play 80 minutes of competitive rugby.

If you ask Nick Stiles, that's what last night's Reds loss to the Chiefs boils down too.

Stiles was considered in his approach to assessing the match, first pointing to the Australian-wide battle to compete with teams from across the ditch.

"What you have to understand is that at the moment - and this is all the Australian Super Rugby teams - we just aren't able to put together 80 minute performances," Stiles told RUGBY.com.au.

"And you just can't afford to do that against these New Zealand teams.

"That's the biggest difference right now - they never switch off and we still have guys that aren't able to put complete performances together."

The loss was remarkably similar to the second half beating Queensland received at the hands of the Brumbies.

They went with the Chiefs through the first 40 minutes and showed a deliberate sense of attacking endeavour to put the home side under pressure.

That endeavour paid dividends, as the three kickable penalties that were turned down resulted in two first half tries.

"We wanted to put them under pressure and we knew we were going to have to play down their end and put points on the board to do that," Stiles said.

"I thought Quade did a really good job of controlling that aspect of the game in the first half."

But things quickly took a turn for the worse at the start of the second half.

Sloppy defensive work was the theme of the half as the Chiefs ran in four tries to one in the second 40.

When asked what the cause of their defensive woes were, Stiles pointed to inaccurate first up tackles.

"We actually had some of our best defensive sets in that second half," he said.

"But all it takes is one guy going high or falling off a first up and they get in behind you."