“Show what we can do at this level”
Ahead of the 9th edition of the FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup taking place in South Africa (1-12 April), we’re conducting a series of exclusive interviews with the participating teams. Today: Rosa Fernig (NED).
Rosa, you’re about to play a World Cup. How does it feel?
It feels amazing! We’ve been waiting for it for a couple of months now and we’re really excited to play, especially because it’s a World Cup. We’re used to play European teams, but now it’s very special that we play other teams as well.
The Netherlands have played all editions of the FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup. And very successfully (3 Gold medals, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal)! How do you look at this and do you think this has an impact on how you will anticipate this tournament?
We are the Netherlands, so we are known to be at a high level in hockey. But we have our own team and it’s all new for us, so we’re not really thinking about what the past teams did. But I think it’s nice there is a certain level you have to reach. That’s a little bit of pressure but I think it’s good to have some pressure, as it’s just for the best.
For you and your teammates, joining such a successful team as your senior national team at some point in your career is probably an ambition, or maybe even a dream. Do you think this can also be one of the objectives for you and your teammates in this tournament?
This is also one of the reasons why this Junior World Cup is a really nice tournament. It gives us the opportunity to show what we can do at our age and hopefully for some of us it will bring us to the next level. So, I think some of it is there somewhere in our minds but I also think that for us it’s just a really nice stage to show what we can do at this level.
What are your expectations as a team for this World Cup?
Our main goal is to play as best as we can. We know what we can do. Now the challenge is to really show it and perform the best we can. That’s the main goal.
Will it be your first time in South Africa?
We’ve been there like two years ago, with some of the people who are also in the team now, to train and also to play against South Africa – the U-21 team, I think. It was great. We were in Cape Town, in Stellenbosch. It was sunny, which for us Dutch people was really nice! Also the people were really nice. The views, the landscapes too. Everything was great. We look forward to just go to the country as well.
We’re just a few days away from the start of the tournament. How will you prepare?
We will do some last things like penalty corners and stuff like that. And we have to be careful with the whole COVID situation. That’s a bit on the top of our minds right now, to make sure we don’t catch it and that we all get to go and be there. Those are the main things.
