Inspired by Olympic hockey gold, England's lacrosse stars eye world glory

After twice finishing fourth, Merrifield is aiming high for this summer's FIL Rathbones Lacrosse World Cup on home soil in Guildford.

And she believes there's never been a better England squad to break the stranglehold enjoyed by defeating champions the United States and podium regulars Canada and Australia.

Danny Kerry's hockey stars were inspired by plenty of setbacks on their road to Rio, with many writing off their medal hopes before they arrived in Brazil. But former European champion Merriford likes the similarities of the story.

"The hockey girls were in a similar place to us in that they had missed out a couple of times and that is absolutely inspiring," said Merrifield, 28, who made the all-star team at the last World Cup in Canada.

"It is always wonderful to see other women's sports doing really well and we support and follow all of them. That gives us the confidence to go hard as well. We know we have a chance this time and it is about taking every opportunity when the tournament begins."

Claire Faram is looking to make her first World Cup this summer, with head coach Phil Collier set to trim his 25-strong squad to 18 in the weeks ahead.

England beat Australia in a three-Test series last year and have just returned from a successful trip to the States, beating several of the top college teams in the process. Next week they face Japan in a friendly that could be crucial to many World Cup ambitions.

"It was really inspirational watching the hockey girls last year," said Faram, 24.

"Seeing players like Maddie Hinch out there is great for minority sports like ours because they are now our heroes.

"You can look up to those athletes and almost model ourselves and our team on their togetherness and spirit. Hopefully, we can do the same as them. They won the Olympic gold medal and we are hoping to go and be world champions.

"It would be awesome to replicate it. I went crazy when they got in, that final penalty was awesome.

"There are parallels between the two sides but we have a long way to go before we get lacrosse onto that kind of stage in front of that kind of audience. This is the first steps of it. This World Cup is the perfect stepping stone to get that going."

The FIL Rathbones Women's World Lacrosse Cup takes place at Surrey Sports Park, Guildford, 12-22 July 2017.

Sportsbeat 2017