Melbourne Vixens star Liz Watson won player of the match honours in Australia's 52-47 win over England in Newcastle on Wednesday, despite starting on the bench.

Watson, who was last week elevated to the Diamonds leadership group, started Australia's first Quad Series match against South Africa at wing attack.

But Watson, who was the Vixens 2018 MVP and was named at WA in the Super Netball team of the year, lost her starting spot on Wednesday to Test rookie Kelsey Browne.

Watson's introduction at centre in place of Kim Ravaillion for the second quarter, helped spark a lift in Australia's attacking play, after they scored just 11 goals in the opening term.

She finished with an equal game-high 21 assists and combined with Brown to provide more opportunities for the shooters and give Alexander more to think about, when settling on the composition of her midcourt for Sunday's match.

"She (Watson) gives that calmness in attack but that real mongrel in defence," Diamonds' goalkeeper Courtney Bruce told AAP.

Australia (2-0) will wrap up the latest edition of the Quad Series with a win over New Zealand, who have lost their last six games against the Diamonds.

Both the Silver Ferns and England have a 1-1 record, while South Africa are 0-2.

New Zealand lost 52-39 to England in new coach Noeline Taurua's first game in charge, but rebounded with a 61-37 thrashing of South Africa.

"Noeline is a great coach and I know that the Silver Ferns have a lot of pride, so they will definitely come out firing," Bruce said.

"They will be tough and wanting to really stamp their authority on the game."

While Australia's win on Wednesday avenged their Commonwealth Games final loss to England, Bruce felt both herself individually and the Diamonds collectively could improve.

"We gave them a bit too much space in defence to begin with, so coming out punching hard in that first quarter to set the tone for the rest of the game," Bruce said.

" I think we can still improve on our long court attack.

"I threw a few balls away and that's not good enough from a goalkeeper."

Australian Associated Press