Hours of running around a muddy sports field have led to a debut on the big screen for five youngsters.

The five students, from Cranbrook Lacrosse Club, appear in teen romcom Wild Child, which hit cinemas on Monday .

The film stars Emma Roberts, who plays 16-year-old Poppy, an American who lives a pampered life in Los Angeles but is shipped off to an English boarding school by her father.

Finding herself in a foreign world of early curfews, stern matrons and mandatory lacrosse, the American finally meets her match: a school of British girls who won’t tolerate her spoilt ways.

To film the lacrosse scenes, the company needed a group of lacrosse-playing extras and recruited players from a variety of clubs, including Cranbrook.

Emily Ahlers, Daisy Henderson, Hannah Mahon, Emily Steel and Francesca Whiffin, together with Cranbrook lacrosse club coach Kate Steel, spent four days on set helping teach the actors the basics of the game, and then played their roles as opposition teams.

Kate said: “We thought someone was winding us up when we first got the call but after they explained what was needed we were happy to get a group of players together to go and help out.

“While most people think of lacrosse as a girls’ public school game, nothing could be further from the truth, and at Cranbrook we have men, women, boys and girls all playing.”