New Zealand's U21 curling team had two tough battles in the first day at the World Junior Championships for Curling, facing Norway first and Korea second.

All ten men's teams took to the ice on Sunday morning for the opening session at in Jönköping, Sweden.

The New Zealand team is made up of Will Becker (Patearoa), Sam Flanagan (Naseby), Darcy Nevill (Poolburn) and Hunter Burke (Wanaka).

Official NZ U21 team shot from the championships. PHOTO: Supplied

Before their game against New Zealand, Norway had to make a last minute change to their initial line-up, as their original skip, youth Olympic champion Lukas Hoestmaelingen couldn’t travel to the event.

Norway were leading the game by 3-1 after three ends, but a perfect double take-out by New Zealand skip William Becker resulted in a score of two and a tied game after four ends.

Norway made a breakthrough in the fifth with a big score of five to take an 8-3 lead.

They followed that up with a steal of two in the sixth for 10-3. New Zealand responded with a two in the eight, but after a score of four by Norway in the ninth, New Zealand conceded the game with a 14-5 final result.

New Zealand faced Korea in the evening session. Korea were leading the game against New Zealand by 3-1 after four ends. In the fifth and sixth ends, Korea produced nine points altogether — with a score of five, followed by a steal of three — for a 12-1 lead after six ends. At this point, New Zealand conceded making 12-1 the final score.

Curler Sam Flanagan said the U21 team spirit was high and they were having a great time.

"We're definitely worn down after a few big days. We made a few big opportunities for ourselves in the last two games, but just didn't manage to capitalize on them, which is where the big score differences came from.

"The highlight for me has definitely been meeting some amazing curlers, including a handful of Olympic and world medallists," Sam said.

Germany, Norway and Scotland all grabbed two-wins on the first day.

You can follow the schedule and results here.

The Central App wishes all the best to the U21s for their next few games against Scotland, Canada and Sweden.