U21 MEN & WOMEN FINISH THEIR JUNIOR WORLD CUP CAMPAIGNS
The New Zealand U21 Men’s and Women’s teams have completed their Junior World Cup campaigns, gaining valuable international experience and delivering performances that will shape the future of the Black Sticks programme.
The New Zealand U21 Women finished 19th at the 2025 FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile, following a challenging but growth-focused tournament. Drawn into a tough pool, the women faced the USA, Uruguay, and Korea, finishing fourth in their group with two losses and one draw, narrowly missing progression into the top 16 playoffs.
They opened their campaign against the USA, going down 2-5 despite a strong attacking showing from Greer Findlay, who scored both goals. Match two saw a gritty 3-3 draw against Uruguay, with all goals coming from penalty corners and captain Riana Pho levelling the match late in the game. In their final pool match, New Zealand pushed Korea hard, leading 2-0 through two Mezzy Surridge goals before Korea rallied to take a 2-3 win.
Dropping into the 17–24 classification matches, the women responded strongly with a dominant 7–2 win over Austria with Greer Findlay and Riana Pho both scoring doubles. This performance placed the U21 Women into the 17-20 playoffs facing Scotland. Despite conceding 2 early goals, New Zealand fought back hard drawing the match 2-2, but ultimately losing to Scotland in the shootout (2-3). They finished the tournament on a high with a composed 2–0 win over Canada in the 19th–20th playoff.
A standout across the campaign was Greer Findlay, who finished with six goals, placing her second on the tournament goal-scoring chart, an impressive achievement on the world stage.
The New Zealand U21 Men delivered a strong campaign at the FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup in Tamil Nadu, India, finishing 8th overall and reaching the quarterfinals for the first time since 2009.
The men were unbeaten through pool play, opening with a confident 5-3 win over China, led by a Jonty Elmes first-half hat-trick. They followed that with a high-quality 3-3 draw against Argentina, with Elmes again scoring all three goals, before grinding out a hard-fought 3-2 win over Japan in difficult weather conditions to top their pool and advance to the knockout stage.
In the quarterfinal against Spain, the men showed enormous resilience, clawing back from 0-3 down to level the match 3-3 in the final minute through Sam Lints, before heartbreak struck with a Spanish penalty corner goal in the final seconds, ending the match 3-4. The men then fell to the Netherlands in the 5-8 playoff and were defeated by France 1-4 in the seventh-place playoff, finishing 8th overall.
Despite the tough ending, the campaign included major positives, highlighted by Jonty Elmes finishing as the tournament’s second-highest goal scorer with 11 goals, including three hat-tricks against China, Argentina, and the Netherlands, an outstanding individual achievement.
Across both tournaments, the U21 programmes showcased resilience, growth, and a clear pathway of talent pushing toward senior international hockey. With players tested against the world’s best, these experiences will play a crucial role in building depth, belief, and performance for the future of New Zealand hockey.