6 Jul 2017

Sport: Fiji U21s 'excited' by World Youth Cup opportunity

1:31 pm on 6 July 2017

Fiji are putting their faith in fresh talent at the Netball World Youth Cup in Botswana.

The Baby Pearls earned a top ten finish at the last Under 21 Championships four years ago and won the Oceania qualifying tournament in September.

Fiji and the Cook Islands clash in the final of the Oceania U21 netball qualifiers.

Fiji beat Cook Islands in the Oceania qualifying final last year. Photo: Netball New Zealand

Head coach Vicki Wilson said she'd picked a team full of talent, even if they are a bit raw.

"We've got three secondary school students in the side - they're only 15 years of age - so a very young, inexperienced team," she said.

"We've got one girl, our captain Episake Kahatoka, who's played at World Cup so our experience is very limited but...they're just so excited and it's a great challenge for them to step out on that international stage."

Fiji celebrate winning the Oceania World Youth Cup netball qualifying tournament.

Fiji celebrate winning the Oceania World Youth Cup netball qualifying tournament. Photo: Netball New Zealand

All but one of the national squad is based in Fiji, with one player selected from Brisbane, Australia.

Vicki Wilson said finding time together in the build-up to the World Youth Cup has been somewhat challenging.

"I've tried to do a lot of work in the school holidays - at Christmas time if you were to hold a training camp either in Australia or New Zealand I'm sure you wouldn't get too many kids rocking on in after two weeks but they still kept coming back every day and they really enjoyed it," she said.

"And also in January, before the series, we did a training camp and we managed to have another couple of weeks together - so they still went to school or they went to uni but we trained at night, so that was terrific to be able to have those consecutive training sessions."

Former Australian netball captain Vicki Wilson.

Fiji Netball coach Vicki Wilson. Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Fiji play Trinidad and Tobago in their opening match this weekend and also face Wales, Granada and England in pool play.

Wilson said, all things considered, they have drawn quite a good pool.

"We've avoided New Zealand, Australia and Jamaica and South Africa so we've only got England to deal with and Trinidad, so I'm very happy with our pool," she said.

"First game is going to be tough though because playing in Under 21s they're relatively unsighted, so we're up against Trinidad so we won't know what we're up against until the warm up.

"Or maybe the opening ceremony I'll be sizing up a few of their players (laughing) and trying to work out who their shooter is and who their keeper is," said the former Australian captain.

Vicki Wilson said Fiji would love to finish in the top two in their pool and advance to the quarter finals but that will be tough, requiring them to upset either Trinidad or England.