The England Women’s training squad are providing regular blog updates from their Florida Tour, giving the inside story on their week of training in the build up to this year’s Women’s World Championship.

Day 3 was our rest day and what better activity could we pick in Florida than seeing Alligators on an airboat tour!

Split into two groups, we toured on airboats (up to 25mph) through the swampy waters stopping to see the Alligators and other swamp inhabitants. Some facts about Alligators we learnt:

- They can slow their heart rate to 1-2 bpm and stay underwater for 24hrs at a time

- They will only tend to catch and eat pray they can eat whole. They can go without eating for one year

- They are territorial and will fight for their territories within the swamp

- They have 3 eyelids

After the once in a lifetime trip with gators we had a quick stop off at Dicks Sporting Goods (needless to say the team came away with some great stash); before driving home for a pot luck/pasta party dinner created in our cabins to fuel for GAME DAY the following day.

Rest day activities concluded with a brilliant game coach Katie Koi introduced the team to called ‘Mind’ in which you have to work silently, reading your teammates to try & beat the game.

We would highly recommend this game if you love working in a team and are remotely competitive!

Finally, we switched into game mode and had a meeting to discuss the match vs Puerto Rico the following day setting out our game plan and targets before heading to bed.

Day 4 was our second game day of the tour. For the first time in England Lacrosse history, we had a capped game against Puerto Rico.

As a relatively new international team, it was a chance to test ourselves and what we’ve been working on as a squad.

The first quarter started with an impressive defensive set, sealed by the all important save by Katie Greenwood.

Captain, Laura Merrifield then got the scoresheet rolling with an impressively worked goal.

Puerto Rico pushed us hard in this first quarter with great athleticism and draw controls to give them some possession, but the first quarter ended 3-1 to England.

Huge credit should go to Emily Nalls and Julie Wise for earning their first caps straight off the bat in the first quarter.

The second quarter saw another team captain, Claire Faram, scoring a couple of great team goals assisted by Meg Whittle.

The second quarter also saw Liv Thomas and Georgie Southorn entering the field and earning their first caps and instantly having an impact on the game.

Georgie Southorn scored from an assist from Jenny Simpson to earn her first goal in a Senior England shirt.

Puerto Rico stayed within reach however, and the score was 6-4 at half time.

The seven players making their full senior international debuts vs Puerto Rico

The third and fourth quarters saw England raise their game another level only conceding one goal across both quarters thanks to some huge stops by Emilie Chandler.

Further first caps were earnt by Charlie Wilson in Q3 as well as Emma Brown and Laura Beaman in Q4.

Beaman not only won her first cap, but also scored with her first touch of the game. Not to be outdone, our newest straight defender, Emily Nalls, sprinted the length of the pitch to score her first goal.

The final score ended 17-5.

Overall the game was a very exciting match and highlighted the depth of the England team.

To finally be back together in game after two years of disrupted training, it was great to put out a team performance with 10 different goal scorers and 13 assisted out of the final 17.

It marks a big start to 2022 and a huge step forwards in our journey to the World Cup in Towson, Maryland this summer.