Playing for England Box in 2019

The National team’s box journey started on a rainy tennis court in Disley.

For the majority of players, summer 2018 was the start of the journey towards Langley and the world championships. The team got together shortly after the Tasko cup for one trial in the North and one in the South. By coincidence, the venues were Bisley (Brookwood) and Disley (Stockport).

For the first time the box team was overly subscribed with domestic players of varied experience, and on a sandy tennis court in Disley coaches Walt Christianson and Andy Downing got their first look at what England had to offer. There was a long way to go…

The coaches named around 35 players from the initial trials and began to train monthly in the build up to September 2019. Together they travelled to Prague in April of that year for the final selection, and were left with the strongest group of domestic players England had seen before; supplemented by Canadian-based passport holders.

For the Canadian-based players the build up is different. Although they were brought into team comms early, the new players from either side of the pond wouldn’t meet one another until the first day of training camp.

When the English land at any box tournament, it’s typically a week in advance of the opening ceremony, with the coaches delivering an intensive set of sessions explaining the systems the team will play. Unlike field this means that the players have to go from a very basic understanding to international standard schemes in just a week.

Following the camp and a mixed set of results vs Australia (Loss) and Germany (Win) it was into the Blue division and business as usual. No matter the version of lacrosse England have managed to hang with the professionals for a top 5 finish, but with that finish comes the challenge of tough Blue division games to start the tournament.

Looking down the barrell of a 10 day schedule with potentially only 1 rest day, England started their campaign vs Canada, who have never lost a game.

Suffice to say England took their licks in the group stages, as well as losing out to Israel in an OT defeat. This left them with the minimum of 1 rest day guaranteed, and a game against Finland to keep their medal dreams alive. Finland had beaten the team in the European Championships convincingly, and weren’t shy about making their ambitions clear.

Read about the knockout stages in our next blog!