Scotland men's national lacrosse team

Scotland

Association	Lacrosse Scotland
Confederation	ELF (Europe)
Head coach	Matt Bagley
World Championship
Appearances	7 (first in 1998)

The Scotland national men's lacrosse team is governed by Lacrosse Scotland and is currently coached by Matt Bagley (2023 WC). Previous coaches include Graham Simpson (1994 WC), Lee Wilkinson (1996 EC), Phil Collier (1998 WC, 1999 EC, 2002 WC), Phil Moore (2000 EC), John Robinson (2001 EC), Keith Langdale (2006 WC), John Kenney (2008 EC, 2010 WC, 2012 EC, 2014 WC), and Brian Silcott (2016 EC, 2018 WC).

Prior to the Lockerbie air disaster in December 1988, the men's game had not been represented in Scotland since the turn of the 20th century. The tragedy of Pan Am Flight 103 saw many Syracuse University students perish and on a memorial visit one year later the University's lacrosse team were surprised that there was no Scotland national men's team for them to compete against. The country was challenged to pull together an inaugural and bona fide team; this was achieved some eight months later and following the 1990 World Championships the men's team played their first representative match. Scotland has now played memorial games against Syracuse during visits to Lockerbie to pay their respects to those lost in the air disaster, and hope this fixture will continue into the future.

The 1994 World Series was a tremendous showcase for the sport and an opportunity for Scotland to make its name on the World stage. Scotland wanted people in Scotland to hear more about this fine sport and inspire greater grass roots participation through the existing British Lacrosse Development Program. The development game, Pop Lacrosse, a mixed sport played in schools is growing at an impressive rate. During 1997/8 Pop Lacrosse was introduced to nearly 100 schools in the Fife, Lothian, SW Region, Perthshire, Tayside, Central and Strathclyde areas. The numbers of players coached was in excess of 10,000 and the number of PE teachers educated in coaching was nearly 250.

Since that time Scotland have been represented at every European and World Championships held. Scotland have ranked 3rd in Europe and 6th in the World Championships.^[1]

This was the second World Championships with Head Coach John Kenney at helm, after an impressive 7th placed finish in 2010. Scotland were placed in the White Division and won all 3 pool games, scoring 61 goals in the process, and advanced to play Finland in the play-in games. Scotland overcame Finland and then New Zealand to advance into the quarter-finals. A narrow defeat to the Iroqouis (10-8) saw Scotland face-off against Japan, with a place in the elite Blue Division at stake. After two periods of over time, Scotland took the victory (9-8). The final game of the tournament pitched the Scots against their rivals England in a fierce game that ended with another narrow defeat (15-13). Despite this narrow loss Scotland still finished in 6th place overall and will compete in the Blue Division in 2018.

In the 2010 World Lacrosse Championship, Scotland was in the Turquoise Division. They won their division with a 3-0 record, and finished with an overall record of 6-2, earning them a 7th-place finish overall. Game results were as follows:^[2]

^[3]

In the 2006 World Lacrosse Championship, Scotland was in the "red division", i.e. the second tier. Results were as follows:

Red division standings after the round-robin phase of the tournament were:

1. Ireland
2. Scotland
3. Italy
4. Wales
5. Hong Kong

With the nations ranked amongst their division, they played off for their final standings. The winner from each lower group played a lower-ranked nation from Blue division for their shot at the championship. Scotland's results were as follows:

The final standings were:

1. Canada
2. USA
3. Australia
4. Iroquois Nation
5. England
6. Japan
7. Ireland
8. Germany
9. Finland
10. Italy
11. Scotland
12. Netherlands
13. Wales
14. Latvia
15. Czech Republic
16. Denmark
17. Spain
18. South Korea
19. New Zealand
20. Hong Kong
21. Bermuda

Scotland has been represented in every European Championship, dating back to the very first one in 1995 in Prague–Plzeň, Czech Republic. In the last played games in 2016, Scotland finished 8th out of 24 participating countries.

The Scotland national indoor lacrosse team was reformed in 2018 through the generation of a domestic box lacrosse league and is currently managed by Brendan Cook (general manager), Brian Witmer (head coach) and Navi Mahal (assistant coach). The team will be participating in the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships 2019.

Scotland made their first appearance in the Men's Under-19 World Lacrosse Championships during the 2008 tournament.^[5] The team placed eighth overall out of twelve competing nations.^[6]