David Kidwell stormed up the stairs into Jason Taylor's office. Sweat was dripping from his brow. He had that look in his eye. Give me a go. "It's a great story," Souths coach Taylor said.

"I was sitting in my office early in the week and he came up the stairs. He'd been doing an extra training session over and above what the other guys were doing. He walked in with sweat dripping off him and said, 'What's happening with the team this week, I'm ready to go, I'm ready to go. Give me a shot at it'." Taylor gave him a shot. Kidwell, playing in first grade for the first time since round 18 against Parramatta, didn't disappoint. Neither did his teammates.

In what Taylor described as his side's best defensive performance of the season, the Rabbitohs kept alive their slim finals hopes by snapping the Warriors' four-game winning streak last night.

The two sides scored three tries apiece in a thriller, the difference being a missed conversion - which hit the uprights - from the otherwise outstanding Warriors fullback Lance Hohaia. The visitors, coming off a gutsy win over premiership favourites Melbourne, peppered the opposition line in the dying minutes but could not penetrate it.

Get out the abacus, Souths fans, you're still a chance, at least mathematically, of making the play-offs.

A fraction of the 9276 crowd got in for free when wonderfully eccentric Warriors fanatic Peter Leitch - aka The Mad Butcher - gave tickets away to anyone who subjected themselves to the indignity of doing the haka or singing the New Zealand national anthem.

But the big talking point afterwards was Kidwell's meat pie. The score was locked at 12-12 when the former Kiwi international, who was stripped of the captaincy for turning up to training over the limit earlier in the season, crossed midway through the second half in what turned out to be the matchwinning play.

"I'm just glad to get off the nudie run at the end of the year," he said.

SOUTH SYDNEY 18 (D Kidwell B Lowe N Merritt tries I Luke 2 C Sandow goals) bt NZ WARRIORS 16 (L Hohaia 2 J Ropati tries L Hohaia 2 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: S Lyons. Crowd: 9,276.