The NSW Waratahs are officially locked in a Super 14 wooden-spoon battle with the hapless Queensland Reds after slumping to a 16-10 loss to the Stormers at Aussie Stadium.

The bumbling Waratahs committed rugby suicide, racking up 19 handling errors and suffering 23 turnovers to remain in second-last position on the ladder - above only the Reds - at the halfway point of the competition.

"It's got a familiar ring to it, hasn't it? Yeah, that's certainly not in the game plan," NSW coach Ewen McKenzie said after enduring another painful 80-minute horror show from his misfiring team.

"You can't win games if you can't do better than that. We're making mistakes and it's costing us.

"I certainly expect better from individuals in these games, so I'm not going to sit here and make more excuses.

"The Stormers deserved to win."

Runners-up two years ago and semi-finalists last season, the Waratahs enter the second half of the 2007 tournament more than three wins out of the top four and needing a miracle to make the playoffs after going winless at home for four games straight for the first time since 1999.

The Waratahs almost certainly need to win all seven of their remaining matches, a nigh-impossible task given they face a string of games against the New Zealand provinces with their All Blacks back on deck after being rested for the opening seven rounds.

The daunting run home begins next week in Auckland against the front-running Blues.

Then come the six-times champions the Crusaders in Sydney and the Brumbies in Canberra before a potentially decisive round 11 derby with Queensland at Aussie Stadium.

"It's going to be a good test of character from here on in," said Waratahs captain Adam Freier.

"We've just got to hang tough. We're all in this together."

Freier conceded the Waratahs had no-one but themselves to blame for their dire plight.

"We speak every week about how the luck's just not with the Waratahs but you earn your own luck just with doing the little things well," he said.

"The handling errors is definitely something we need to turn around."

Winger Sam Norton-Knight had a particularly forgettable night out, knocking on from the opening kick-off and then proceeding to make a raft of horrible mistakes.

Norton-Knight made that many blunders and kicked so poorly that when he eventually found touch with one clearing kick he received a sarcastic round of applause from the pro-NSW crowd.

It was embarrassing stuff but his teammates were not much better.

Fullback Peter Hewat's kicking game could not be faulted but his passing was terrible.

He threw one ball into touch, as did halfback Josh Valentine, and spoilt another promising attacking raid when he was unable to complete a fundamental draw-and-pass movement.

On another occasion, Lote Tuqiri, playing in the centres for the first time this season, threw a forward pass to Norton-Knight with a try in the offing.

It was amazing the Waratahs were still in the game until the hour mark.

Only stout defence kept the Stormers at bay - until skipper and man-of-the-match Luke Watson evaded Wycliff Palu to score the match-winning try on the hour.

The flanker's five-pointer, along with fly-half Peter Grant's conversion and two penalty goals, gave the Stormers a 13-3 lead.

Grant added another penalty six minutes later to make it 16-3 before the Waratahs were offered a glimmer of hope when they were awarded a penalty try seven minutes from time.

Stormers replacement Dylan des Fountain was sin-binned for deliberately knocking down Hewat's pass which, had it found its mark, should have been a try to Tuqiri.

Alas, there was to be no happy ending for the Waratahs.

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