A desperate New Zealand Warriors embraced a style of play that is largely foreign to them in overcoming South Sydney 26-12 in a battle of the NRL cellar-dwellers at Aussie Stadium.

The Warriors gave themselves a timely lift and left their opponents at the bottom of the ladder by employing good old fashioned graft, rather than the razzle-dazzle for which they've been renowned.

"We didn't have a huge amount of flair and flamboyance out there," conceded a relieved Warriors coach Daniel Anderson.

"We needed to win ugly, pretty, whatever. It was all about guts and grinding it out.

"Because of the type of personnel we had today, we had no choice but to get down to the nitty-gritty and work hard."

The once-alien notion of rolling their sleeves up to get a result was critical after conceding two tries in the first 12 minutes of the game.

After their bright beginning, the Jeckyll and Hyde red and greens sunk to the frustrating ineptitude that has plagued them since returning to the League in 2002.

Coach Paul Langmack had no hesitation in tagging Souths second half display as "the worst we've played all year", though he felt their cause wasn't helped by a controversial dropped ball decision against Luke MacDougall that led to the visitors' match-sealing fourth try.

"It's just shattering," he said of the performance.

"I expected us to win today.

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