PERTH - The Silver Ferns will have to step up their intensity if they hope to beat Australia in the second netball test at Perth's Challenge Stadium tomorrow morning, says skipper Lesley Nicol.
Nicol said her comments after the 54-49 loss in the first test in Sydney on Saturday that New Zealand needed more "mongrel" and "guts" applied to their intensity on the court, not to their physicality.
Asked yesterday whether New Zealand deliberately stepped up their physical approach when they played Australia, Nicol said: "I don't think the physicality is stepped up at all.
"In terms of intensity we need to step up and that is what we lacked on Saturday night.
"We need more hunger and desire, really wanting it - that will to win - and that was what was lacking."
Nicol's "mongrel" comments have attracted debate in Australia, with Australian coach Norma Plummer also taking it as an indication that the Silver Ferns would be more physical in the second test.
"I'd hate to see it when [New Zealand] do show the mongrel, it [the first test] was bad enough."
The chief villain in Australian eyes was goalkeeper Vilimaina Davu, whom Plummer claimed had been rested in the second quarter to settle her down.
Aitken rejected that assertion.
- NZPA
Netball: 'Mongrel' comments stir up the Australians
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