2-4th May 2024, Prague, Czechia
Czechia 22:10 England
It was in at the deep end for the 16 rookies gaining their first England Box Lacrosse caps with the opening game against the E-Box hosts, Czechia. For George Medd and 16 year old, Finn Ward, it was their first full game of box lacrosse!
Understandable anxiety, coupled with the intensity any Czech team brings the floor, made this an uncomfortable watch. There is a saying you learn more from defeats than victories. In this game all the rookies found out how fast international box lacrosse is played, the commitment needed to win loose balls and transition the ball up the floor, and how defensive play in the box game is at a whole different level to field lacrosse. It was also very warm, with the game played at 4pm. Goalie Ben Stowe needed litres of cold water poured over him between quarters.
The big plus was scoring 10 goals, with 7 of the rookies in the offensive unit and 8 different scorers including first England goals from Nathan Edwards, Ryan Martin, Oscar McCarthy and Jack O’Mahoney.
Germany 15:7 England
The final score does not reflect how close this game could have been. England pulled the score back to 10:7 early in the 4th quarter only to see Germany bang in five more goals. We paid the price for some defensive lapses and unnecessary penalties as players started to fatigue.
However the improvement from the Czechia game was significant. The practice sessions every morning were essential for this improvement, making the most of the time with head coach Walt Christianson. Now can we improve again in our final game?
England 18:10 Tokyo Box Lacrosse (Japan)
…and we did improve with a very pleasing win over the Tokyo team, who form the bulk of players from the Japan national team. Every element of our play was visibly better and you would struggle to spot the rookie players from those with many years box experience.
The Tokyo team are quality, they only lost by one goal to another Czechia team on Friday evening. They had picked up a few injuries earlier in the weekend so some local Czech players were helping them out, which was fine. England always had the lead but any lapses, like those that occurred against Germany and Czechia, were punished.
Throughout the course of the three games, the rookies transformed themselves into international box players. We were delighted that every player from the offensive group got on the score sheet. James McIlhagger scored his first of four goals to open the scoring. Seb Di Siena scored our second goal. In the second half, the last (and youngest) offensive rookie Finn Ward scored three goals in 7 minutes. Goalie Ben Stowe finished with this best performance, with a 77% save percentage.
Thoughts from Head Coach, Walt Christianson.
Thoughts from Captain, Tom Roche.
Squad Stats
Runners
| # | Name | Games | Goals | Assist | Penalties | Penalty Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42 | Allsop, Ollie | 3 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 40 | Allsop, Will | 3 | – | – | – | – |
| 2 | Bunio, Lyndon | 3 | 7 | 5 | – | – |
| 33 | Carr, Archie | 3 | – | – | 1 | 2 |
| 20 | Dawson, Oliver | 3 | – | – | – | – |
| 7 | Di Siena, Sebastian | 3 | 1 | 3 | – | – |
| 12 | Dury, George | 3 | – | – | 1 | 2 |
| 23 | Edwards, Harry | 3 | – | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 | Edwards, Nathan | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 25 | Hodgkins, Joe | 3 | – | – | – | – |
| 8 | Lee, Ollie | 3 | – | – | 1 | 2 |
| 10 | Leonard, Elliot | 3 | 4 | 2 | – | – |
| 24 | Martin, Ryan | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | McCarthy, Oscar | 3 | 3 | – | 1 | 2 |
| 11 | McIlhagger, James | 3 | 4 | 2 | – | – |
| 18 | Medd, George | 3 | – | – | 1 | 2 |
| 5 | O’Mahoney, Jack | 3 | 1 | – | – | – |
| 27 | Payne, Travis | 3 | – | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 16 | Robinson, Jack | 3 | 1 | 3 | – | – |
| 51 | Roche, Tom | 3 | 3 | – | 1 | 2 |
| 35 | Stowe, Ben | 3 | – | – | – | – |
| 48 | Ward, Finn | 3 | 3 | 1 | – | – |
| 17 | Warren, Kristien | 3 | – | – | – | – |
Goalie
| # | Name | Games | Goals | Saves | Save % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | Stowe, Ben | 3 | 47 | 87 | 65 % |
England Box Lacrosse 