The annual North v South series will this year be run over the weekend of 5/6th July, out of the Oxford Academy 3G Dome. All games will be live streamed on YouTube via LacrosseLiveUK.
Squad Coaches
The coaches for each squad will be announced soon.
Women: Conor Dockery, Eliot Pugh and Millie Geddes
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.
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?
…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.
We are delighted to have selected 16 players who will earn their first England Box cap, including 4 who are from the current England U20 field training squad (Carr, McIlhagger, Ward & McCarthy) who are leading into the U20 Field World Championships this summer in South Korea. This demonstrates the ‘development’ nature of the squad, our objective for 2025 E-Box. This will put England in a great position leading up to the 2026 Box Euros with a larger base of domestic players with international box experience.
* denotes number of England Box caps, excluding representation for England field lacrosse national squads
England Men’s Box Lacrosse is attending the E-Box 2025 tournament in Prague.
E-Box 2025 is later than usual, for this year scheduled after the AHM tournament. Travel days are Thursday 1st May, returning on Monday 5th May, which is a UK Bank Holiday. We have asked for games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Given no Euro or World box championships in 2025, this year’s trip to E-Box gives us the opportunity to select more of a development squad, with eyes on the 2026 Euros and players we want to see play at the next level. We aim to select a squad of around 20 players comprising a core from the 2024 Worlds squad plus development players.
Training sessions leading into E-Box are as follows.
Sunday 26 January 2025, Oxford, 12:00-16:00
Sunday 16 February 2025, Sheffield, 16:00-19:15
Sunday 6 April 2025, Sheffield, 16:00-19:15
Sunday 27 April 2025, Oxford, 12:00-16:00
The E-Box squad will be selected AFTER the February session, so we expect players to attend either or both the January and February training sessions. This gives selected players sufficient time to arrange work and travel plans for E-Box.
Sessions are open to all players who are eligible to play for England including players who do not want to be considered for the E-Box squad but want to train with the England Box programme.
Provisional E-Box schedule.
Friday 16:00, Czech Republic (B/U20 team), in Radotin Saturday 19:00, Germany, in Malešice Sunday 18:00, Japan, in Radotin
ACTION – To sign-up for the training sessions please complete this form.
England men retained their world ranking of 4th after winning their vital quarter final game against European rivals Czechia. The pool A phase was always going to be challenging, alongside the three powerhouse box nations, but England played in a style that earned respect and set themselves up for the big one against Czechia. Following that, all focus was on the Bronze game. With the half-time score only 4-2 to Haudenosaunee, the game plan was working. Head Coach Walt Christianson prepared the team at half-time for Haudenosaunee to hit them with everything they had on the restart, which they did to win the second half 10-3.
The first ever women’s World Championships saw England finish 5th and the highest placed European team. Two wins and two loses during the pool phase included a dramatic overtime win against Netherlands. That clinched progression to the quarter finals to face Australia, a game that turned out to be a heartbreaker. England had a 4 goal lead at half-time (4-8) but the Aussies smashed the 3rd period with a run of 9 goals. The squad bounced back to beat Ireland and set-up a 5th place game against Germany. This time it was England who fought back from being behind, scoring 5 of the final 6 goals to travel home with that winning feeling.
England Box Lacrosse 