Rory Marsden enjoys a scrap. It was what attracted him to lacrosse in the first place and he reaches the pinnacle of his sporting career this summer when the World Championships are held in Manchester in July.

Based in the city, the 28 year-old believes Scotland can give a decent account of themselves in a sport that is reaching new horizons.

 “We have a good group of players who have stayed pretty much together for the past two or three years so we have some consistency in the squad,” Marsden points out.

“There is a good balance whereby a third are from Scotland, another third are Scots living in England and the other third are players brought up in North America who qualify to play for Scotland.

“We also have a top level coach in John Kenney. He is an American but has Scottish roots and was one of the top high school coaches in America. He has coached the USA Under-19 team and is well respected in the game and is much in demand.

“We believe we have a good chance of doing something in Manchester. We’ve been drawn against Latvia, New Zealand and France in our opening group and we’re capable of winning all three matches.

“At the 2008 European Championships, we beat France 20-0 so the signs are good. But every nation is improving as the game expands.

“The Eastern Europeans are improving and you tend to find that the nations who are good at ice hockey are also good at lacrosse.”

Marsden and the rest of the Scottish squad are amateurs and have to raise funds to play in the championships but he knew what he was getting into when he first picked up a lacrosse stick at university ten years ago.

A keen rugby player at Madras College in St Andrews, he was accustomed to a physical sport but wanted a fresh challenge after leaving school.

“It was when I was at university in Stirling that I went along to the Freshers’ Fair and I was introduced to it,” he continues, “I wanted to try another sport after rugby and I was told if I took up lacrosse I could hit people with big sticks.

“It sounded just what I was looking for and sure enough you do get to hit people with sticks! Of course I was aware of the sport from the girls’ side - the Enid Blyton image - but I didn’t know there was a men’s side.

“It’s physically challenging and it is marketed as the fastest game on two feet but it also requires speed of thought and there is just so much to the sport.”

Marsden made his Scotland debut at the British Championships in 2007 and went on to play at the European Championships in Lahti, Finland, the following year.

If he is quietly confident about Scotland’s chance in the World Championships, his experience in Finland taught him not to get too carried away.

“We finished ninth and we were a bit disappointed with that,” he explains, “It was typical Scotland in that we finished level with two other teams at the top of our group but missed out on goal difference and had to play off for the minor places.

“We only missed out by one goal and we actually beat the Netherlands in our group but they went on to finish runners-up in the event. It was like Scotland’s football team in Argentina in 1978!”

Marsden works for the County Sports Partnership in Manchester, which sees him involved with different sports as he strives to set up partnerships between governing bodies, local authorities and sports clubs - potentially 3,000 clubs in the area.

He would love for lacrosse to increase its profile in this country as he knows from first-hand experience the difference in the game on the other side of the Atlantic.

“In February, the Scotland team went over to Baltimore and played five matches in five days,” he goes on, “We got there just two days after a huge amount of snow dumped on the area. If we’d arrived two days earlier, we wouldn’t have got in as only emergency vehicles were allowed on the roads.

“But the Americans have a way of dealing with it and we played matches with 12-foot snow banks at the side of the pitch.

“The standard was phenomenal but it was very good experience for us. We were standing before the game with 20 players on the pitch and they had 50 to 60 plus support staff. It was amazing as they had strength in depth at every position and they are well-drilled and are playing five or six days a week.

“The conditioning is very good and, while it was difficult for us playing so many matches in so many days, it will replicate what we’ll experience at the World Championships.””

RM
© Copyright In The Winning Zone, MMX, All Rights Reserved