England Women spend day with Royal Marines as Lionesses ramp up World Cup preparations

The England Women spent a day with the Royal Marines before camping at St George’s Park as they finalise their Women’s World Cup preparations ahead of their tournament opener against Scotland on June 9th.

In the final two games of their 'Road to France' series of friendlies, Phil Neville’s side will host Denmark, ranked 17th in the world, at Walsall’s 11,300-capacity Bescot Stadium on Saturday 25th May before their final send-off against New Zealand, ranked 19th, at Brighton on Saturday 1st June.

England, ranked third in the world, will play Scotland (20th), Japan (seventh) and Argentina (37th) when they fly to France next month.

At the FA's base in Burton, Neville’s Lionesses spent Wednesday completing military-style training drills and listening to the stories of injured amputees. The players were asked to send one final text before surrendering their phones ahead of a gruelling day of team-building tests and challenges that were still ongoing at 6am the following day. They were not given proper tents but had to work in pairs to build their own shelter and boil packet food from over campfires. In previous years the FA has invited the same group of marines to work with its women’s youth teams.

“We did loads of team building drills,” said Arsenal forward Beth Mead. “In one, we had to rescue soldiers, get them onto stretchers and carry them back to an area. Then we had to memorize different objects and were tested on them when we woke up at six this morning. We were in four different groups and had to remember them as a team. We did it, so the marines had to do a forfeit.

“We had to make our own food up, warm it all up over a fire in packets and rip it apart, then we all slept in tents about an inch away from each other. We were sat round a campfire, singing together with the team - it was probably the most together we’ve been with England.

“There were men there who had had their legs blown off, amputees. It was inspiring for us. We think we are courageous when we are on a football pitch and we have people like that - it’s part of his life, with half their body missing.

“It gives us a reality check. When we moan that we have a niggle, or our foot is hurting as I have a bruise, it put things in perspective. I think it has been good for us.

“When we woke up this morning, everyone’s hair was all over the place and we have army paint on from the night before. Everyone says it feels like we’ve been on a good night out.”

Neville’s side have long made known their aspirations to not only win the Women’s World Cup, which begins in 14 days’ time, but leave a legacy that sees them likened to the All Blacks as one of the world’s greatest and most dominant sports teams.

England’s form has been mixed since Neville took charge in early 2018 but he won his first piece of silverware as England boss at the SheBelieves Cup in March - a invitation-only tournament run by US Soccer featuring the hosts, Brazil and England’s second Group D opponents Japan.

Barcelona forward Toni Duggan said: “When you talk about the pressure of going to a World Cup - I don’t think there’s any pressure after hearing their stories, because that’s real life.

“They were talking about being out in Afghanistan when the Twin Towers came down and the stuff they had to do - wow. I sat around the fire just chatting all night about all different experiences, about being a leader, [coping] under pressure - and who better to learn from? They’re getting bombs fired at them, guns shot at them. It puts things into perspective.  

“What was so surprising was they were big fans of us and so proud. The way they talked to us, not down to us - I couldn’t believe they were even saying that, because we kick a ball around.”