England To Compete In Rescheduled Junior Women’s World Cup

England's U21 women will contest the rescheduled Junior Women's World Cup in South Africa between 1-12 April.

The event was originally due to take place in December 2021 but was postponed because of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and its effect on teams’ ability to travel at the time.

The list of participating teams is: South Africa (hosts), Argentina, Canada, England, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, United States, Uruguay, Wales and Zimbabwe.

Wales, Japan and Ukraine have replaced Belgium, Malaysia and Spain from the original list of participants.

England were initially due to play Belgium, Canada and Uruguay in the group but will now instead take on Ireland, South Africa and Ukraine.

Heather Williams, England Hockey's Head of Elite Talent Development, said: “We are very pleased to be taking part and it is great that our young women now have the chance to play, given the disappointment of the tournament being postponed last year.

“We are grateful to the FIH and the local organising committee for their efforts in putting on the best possible tournament, and we go there excited about seeing the team performing to the best of their ability.

“In addition, we are extremely thankful for the support of clubs, schools and universities here at home as they continue to play a vital role in the development and availability of our young players.”

In order to support all teams, the FIH has extended the number of players to 20 per team. However, only 18 players will be allowed on the start list of any match.

FIH CEO Thierry Weil said: “The FIH Hockey Junior World Cup is such an important milestone in international players’ careers that we’re really happy to be able to stage the upcoming edition, in South Africa, after we were left with no other option than postponing it last year. We’re looking forward to seeing so many of hockey’s rising stars in action in just a few weeks time!”

All games will be shown live on the watch.hockey website/app.