'Winning ugly' is an expression that's often thrown around in the NRL - and all sports, for that matter - as complimentary, when a team has overcome a relatively poor performance to still emerge with victory.
It was a phrase uttered frequently during Andrew Webster's assessment of his team's 28-18 win over the shorthanded Gold Coast Titans on Friday night, but the Warriors coach was far from feeling flattered.
Despite being short a player for three quarters of the match after Moeaki Fotuaika was sent off for a high shot, the Titans pushed the Warriors to the limit at Robina Stadium, before two late tries sealed the NZ-based side's fourth straight win.
The Warriors threatened to open the floodgates on a couple of occasions, only for the resilient Titans to stay in the contest with the kind of mistake-free rugby league that was conspicuously absent from their own performance.
"I think sometimes the expression win ugly you've got to do it. We're all in there understanding that was winning ugly and that's not where we want to be," said Webster after the match.
"The Titans with 12 men, to do what they did, they came to play and made us work for it. But we've got to make some adjustments when different things change.
"Our boys tried hard again tonight, so when you're a coach and you know that, you’re proud of it.
"But the way we executed and the way we played, is just not where we want to be or want to do."
Webster was forced to promote 18th man Taine Tuaupiki into the side, after Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was forced from the field with concussion courtesy of Fotuaika's shoulder.
Nicoll-Klokstad's mandatory stand down means he won't feature in next weekend's clash with cellar-dwellars Wests Tigers.
But Webster believes - after consultation with the team's medical staff - there's no further cause for concern beyond that, despite the fullback's repeated issue with head knocks so far this season.
“I think he had one like that a long time ago. This year he’s had a couple of minor ones, but he did have one like that really early in the season, so there’s been a bit of a gap," Webster noted.
"I always ask people when you get hit in the head, does it matter who you are? Is that going to happen if you’ve had one in the past or haven't.
"That was one of those ones where it would have been the same result for any player.”
As for the incident itself, Webster was reluctant to cast any further comment, preferring to focus on Nicoll-Klokstad's wellbeing.
"I'll leave that to the judiciary," he said of the incident.
"He obviously got hit in the head. He's concussed, he's doing okay. He's talking well. It's hard to say how they're doing when they get concussed, but as far as where he was when he hit the ground and where he is now, he's really good considering.
"He's safe and we're happy about that."
There were some impressive shifts upfront for the Warriors, where Addin Fonua-Blake (169 running metres), Mitch Barnett (165m) and Jackson Ford (146m) led the way for the visitors - who may have felt like the home side given the huge turnout of their faithful supporters on the GC.
But yet again, halfback Shaun Johnson was the shining light for the Warriors, scoring two tries and dishing two try assists for a haul of 16 points to continue to press his claims for the Dally M medal.
Webster said Johnson's late adjustments helped unlock the Titans' pressing defence.
"They were coming hard past the ball defensively and Shaun showed us the way by dummying, digging in and he made two tries in the first half," he said.
"In the second half, he was like 'we've got to change our mindset here,'.
"We kicked early, put it in the corner, got a repeat and a try out of it. All from his mentality about the long game, playing tough and doing it that way through a long kick and a long chase and then we got the results from it.
"A couple of times we let them off the hook through it, but his mentality was that we're going to grind them in the second half and he's playing great footy."
The result consolidated third place on the competition ladder for the Warriors, after the fourth-placed Storm were well beaten by minor premiership favourites Penrith Panthers.
