History

The Youth World Cup was first held in Auckland in 2001.

Staged over four days, the event attracted 30 teams from 10 nations.

The championship was contested in six divisions: -

  • 20’s Men, Women & Mixed
  • 18’s Men, Women & Mixed

Australia and hosts New Zealand won three divisions each.

In 2005 - four years later the second Youth World Cup was hosted by Australia on the Sunshine Coast, Kawana.

Staged over 4 days the event was contested by 22 teams from 8 nations.

New Zealand gained the upper hand winning 4 divisions with Australia claiming the remaining two divisions.

The delivery of the 3rd Youth World Cup in 2009 was hampered by budgeting problems and so FIT elected to not proceed with the event.

No Youth World Cup was planned for 2013.

Over recent years there has been significant growth in International Junior & Youth participation on a regional and international scale.

Junior events have been staged in Asia and the European ‘Youth’ Championship has rapidly grown in participation and awareness.

World leaders in Touch, Australia and New Zealand continue to stage their bi-annual ‘Youth Trans-Tasman’ series.

After a 13 year wait the FIT Youth World Cup is finally back on the international calendar and will continue via the same cycle as the open and senior World Championship staged every 4 years. 

This is a positive progression and assures the frequency of the ‘Youth’ championship, growth in participation numbers and the future success via worldwide development of juniors in the sport.