The Cook Islands U21 netball team must defeat Papua New Guinea today to qualify for the 2025 Netball World Youth Cup in Gibraltar.

The national side defeated PNG on day one of the Oceania Netball World Youth Cup Qualifiers on Monday 63-45 but losing to Tonga 44-66 and Samoa 40-55 at the National Auditorium.

Last night, Cook Islands defeated Fiji’s Baby Pearls 54-38 in a friendly match. Fiji has already secured a place in the Youth Netball World Cup, joined by Samoa and Tonga.

Ngere Puia, president of Netball Cook Islands and Oceania Netball World Youth Cup Qualifiers U21 events manager, says it is a must win for the Cook Islands.

 “This round-robin competition was for the placing of each team. So Samoa has won all three games and they are through”

Tonga defeated Papua New Guinea 65-37 last night to finish second after the round robin competition.

“We know that straight away Samoa is first place because they won all three games. So they will play against Tonga and PNG will definitely be playing against the Cook Islands.”

Puia said that the Cook Islands team has performed well to get this far.

“They just need to be able to have their time together and to be able to gel. It’s something that you do expect when you have players that reside overseas and those who reside here.

“We know that it's just more game time that they need with each other just so that they can be familiar with each other's play.”

Cook Islands Netball supporters are urged to come in large numbers today to support the team at the National Sports Arena in Nikao.

Fixtures: Game 1: 11.30am Tonga vs Samoa; Game 2: 1.45pm Cook Islands vs PNG