Burger tracks her workrate

Auckland – The Proteas are under no illusions just how intense the historic first Test of the inaugural Netball Quad Series against world champions the Australian Diamonds tomorrow will be.

And experienced centre Erin Burger (above) can vouch for how much effort will be required to keep pace with the super-quick Australians – after tracking her exertion in a training match earlier this week.

Burger – who, having played 85 Tests, is the most-capped player in the Proteas team preparing for the opening international in Auckland – wore a GPS tracking device during the team’s training clash with New Zealand A and was startled by the results.

When she played in the recent national championships, she ran around 3km in distance per game.

But against the New Zealand side, she clocked up 9km in the three quarters she was on court.

“It was something I wanted to find out – just how fit I am, and how I could better that,” says Burger, who was the Player-of-the Tournament at the 2011 World Championships in Singapore.

“And it’s interesting that it revealed what we lack – the intensity in our game. We are used to training long, but not that intensely.”

But that’s something Burger believes is now changing under the coaching regime of highly-experienced coach Norma Plummer.

“We’ve learned a lot from Norma and Nicole (Cusack, co-coach). Just listening to someone who has been there,” she said.

“We’ve always worked hard, but it’s about working effectively. If we are, we will be competitive.” – Own Correspondent