Five-eighth Kurtley Beale ensured the NSW Waratahs extended their winning run at their Sydney Football Stadium fortress on Friday night, but he had to be content with winning ugly in an 11-7 defeat of Super 14 bogey team the Chiefs.

Beale laid on a sublime first-half try for Timana Tahu - one of the game's few highlights - and then booted NSW to a lead they would not surrender in a lacklustre second half to extend the Waratahs' winning streak at home to eight games.

That run stretches back to April 2007 when, ironically, it was the Waikato side who were the last away team to taste victory at the SFS.

The Waratahs were unbeaten there last year and have earmarked a run of six home games from their first nine this season as vital to their chances of backing up last year's appearance in the final.

The New Zealand side had won the last three clashes between the franchises, despite their inability to make the Super 14 finals in any of those years.

The Chiefs led 7-5 at the break after the Waratahs let slip an early advantage and, while Beale missed his first three shots, a penalty goal and drop goal after the break saw the Waratahs home unconvincingly.

Dominating the territory and possession and at times decimating the visitors' set-piece play, the Waratahs failed to capitalise and allowed a depleted Chiefs outfit to claim the unlikely lead.

The Waratahs had scored first in the 16th minute through a superb chip from Beale for a wide-ranging Tahu to gather on the full and dive over untouched, allowing the crowd of 21,581 to briefly believe they would be treated to a spectacle.

But as the frantic early tempo settled, so too did the Chiefs, who began turning the tide in the 25th minute but winger Sitiveni Sivivatu couldn't control a Stephen Donald grubber and knocked on over the tryline.

The visitors didn't have to wait long to get on the board though, with prop Sona Taumalolo barging his way over two minutes later.

The Waratahs regained the lead in the 54th minute when Beale kicked his first goal of the night, a penalty after a high shot on young-gun Rob Horne, before extending the advantage to 11-7 in the 59th when he landed a low, flat drop goal.

While the Waratahs never hit top gear, the Chiefs imploded, particularly in the lineout where they were continually pulled up for not throwing straight and with a succession of handling errors.

Skipper Phil Waugh's head, badly cut in a ruck during last week's win over the Hurricanes, required patching by just the third minute and he was blood-binned in the eighth before returning in heavy bandaging.

"It's fine," was all the tough flanker wanted to say about the injury.

Coach Chris Hickey found some positives to take out of the performance.

"You can lose ugly but winning ugly beats losing ugly," he said.

"Winning tight games like that is important and it's where your character is under examination."

Hickey was most pleased with his under-fire tight five's scrums and lineouts and paid tribute to former Wallabies set-piece guru Michael Foley who has joined the Waratahs ranks this year.

"Those two aspects of the game probably actually kept us in the game because we were able to disrupt the quality of their possession and so they probably found it hard to get on the front foot from that," Hickey said.

The coach was also satisfied with Beale's effort to lay on Tahu's five-pointer.

"Kurtley's developing some good vision in that regard and Timana did well ... you're pleased when those things comes off for you," he said.

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