Reds centre Anthony Faingaa has warned the Highlanders that his team are the hungriest team in Super Rugby and said that the Reds will not be happy with making the playoffs.

Last year's Super Rugby champions have enjoyed much stronger form than earlier in the season when they lost three matches in a row and were hit hard by injuries to their backline.

The Reds have worked to get themselves back in the mix for the play offs and currently sit in seventh place and Faingaa says they are driven to repeat the success of 2011.

"It's coming to the pointy end of the season and everyone's desperate but if anything we're hungrier than any other team," the defensive linchpin told AAP.

"For us it's not just making the finals; we want to win this Super championship."

The Reds cannot afford to lose a match as the play offs edge closer and the Reds started their three week charge for the play offs with a 17-32 bonus point victory over the Rebels in Melbourne.

Quade Cooper came on for the first half which helped the Reds to a 24-3 but overall there was still plenty of room for improvement especially since they allowed the Rebels to come back at them in the second half.

"Our performance on the weekend was very patchy," he said. "We had some good parts and some bad parts."

"We've still got a lot of good rugby in us and we haven't seen the best of Queensland yet.

"We have to keep improving and for us that's our big focus."