This past weekend saw an extravaganza of footy in London, as the GB Bulldogs and Irish Warriors continued their preparation for the International Cup and the touring AIS Academy team of rising stars faced the youngsters of the European Legion, drawn from club sides across the continent. Held at the scenic Dulwich College, the occasion was blessed with good footy, bright sun and an enthusiastic crowd of supporters.

The match between the Academy and European Legion, although fairly predictable on the scoresheet - the academy coming off a victory against Geelong’s reserves! - provided a fantastic spectacle of play for the supporters, who really got behind the individual victories that each Legion player enjoyed against their direct opponents.

Tackles, bumps, dodges and the well-earned goals were all greeted with great cheers, and the youngsters forming the Legion team will have picked up new skills from their experience against players we’ll no doubt see on the screen in the not-too-distant-future. From a GB Bulldogs point of view, it was great to see the competition from squad hopefuls Adam Ballard, Danny Armitage, Josh Davey and Sam Brunton.

This report by Adam Bennett, President of AFL Britain. The full squad selected by the Great Britain Bulldogs for the 2011 International Cup is listed below.

Catalonia's oldest footy club, Belfry Valls, is coming to Madrid on May 7th for a three-way tournament versus the Spanish capital's Madrid Bears and Móstoles Kangaroos clubs.

The event will mark the first occasion that a Catalan team has come to Madrid for a challenge match, and the first time that the Madrileños and Catalans have met outside the EU Cup since the Madrid Bears visited Barcelona back in 2003.

The players from the Bears and Kangaroos came together once again to form the Spain Bulls last month for a friendly match against reigning AFL London premiers the Wandsworth Demons. Whilst the Bulls went down to the English power club by 17 points, visiting former Sydney Swans star Brett Kirk was impressed with their tenacity, even pulling on a Spanish jumper for the first half of the match, and writing about the experience here on his blog, Captain Kirk's odyssey.

Prior to this, Kirk had also stopped by Barcelona, taking part in a match with the Lliga de Futbol Australià de Catalunya.

As the European summer approaches, bringing the footy season with it, a few hardy locals and expat Aussies are building new clubs in Scandinavia, adding to the current footy communities of Sweden and Denmark.

South-eastern Sweden has a footy club for the first time, with the Karlskrona Magpies kicking off late last year. In Denmark, half-Danish Aussie Dan Petrolo is working hard to bring the sport to the city of Odense, with some practice matches against other Danish sides in the pipeline.

LEFT: Some of the founding members of the Karlskrona Magpies in late 2010.

We'll have full match reports of the weekend's matches in London on WFN within a few days, but in the meantime, the AFL's website have a review of the AIS vs European Legion available here.

The AIS-AFL Academy team was, as expected, a very well-drilled and skillful outfit, and far too strong for their young European opposition. However, the Europeans can take some encouragement that in future they might well be able to say that they've played against young men who went on to be stars of the AFL.

Lop-sided matches always stir up passionate debate in international footy, whether it's New Zealand beating India by over 200 points at the IC08, the Convicts pounding a novice Spanish side in Madrid, the French being outclassed by the expat Australians at the annual ANZAC match, or the difficulties faced by local-based regional English clubs in fielding a team to compete against Aussie expat-dominated London sides in the 1990s-era BARFL.

With the discussions about divisional play in the IC11 still ongiong, it's a topic that is sure to keep creating talk.

The newly reincarnated Birmingham Bears took the first crown in their history last Saturday, April 16, as they won the AFL Britain Central & North-West League Lightning Cup, held in Hull.

The league’s inaugural Lightning Cup, which marked exactly 3 weeks until regular season start, featured 6 of the 7 teams in the division with Huddersfield Rams, Manchester Mosquitoes, Nottingham Scorpions and Sheffield Thunder being joined by newcomers Birmingham Bears and Hull Mariners.

Thanks to Tim Smith from the Birmingham Bears for this report.

The Irish Warriors take on the British Bulldogs in the second and final clash in London on the 23rd April. The first match, played in Dublin, saw the Irish narrowly defeat the Bulldogs as they battled from 30 points in arrears in the first quarter to take the win by a thrilling 5 points. We are all looking forward to what should be another intense game between these two teams next weekend.

WFN had the opportunity to interview the President of the Australian Rules Football League of Ireland / Assistant Coach to Warriors, Ciaran O’Hara, and here’s what he had to say about the upcoming match;

What do you think ‘made’ your comeback in the first match?

I think the guys weren’t prepared for the intensity of the first quarter the last day and made some costly early mistakes. What really made the comeback was hard work, patience and unity of purpose, things that were probably missing in the first quarter.

The Australian Football League Germany have announced their 22-man German Black Eagles squad for the upcoming test against France in Paris on June 11th.

The match will be the first full-field hit out for the Germans since last year's European Championships in Denmark and Sweden. For the French, it will be just the second full-field match for their National Team, their first coming up this weekend in the now-traditional ANZAC match against the expat-Australian "Aussie Spirit" in Villers-Bretonneux. The match against the Black Eagles will be a key early test for the French, who are on track to make their International Cup debut in August 2011.

Players from all six AFLG clubs are represented, with the Munich Roos leading the way with 7 members selected, followed by the Berlin Crocodiles with 6. The Rheinland Lions have 3 members in the squad, Stuttgart and Frankfurt 2 apiece, and the final member from the Hamburg Dockers.

Coaching the side is Australian Troy Pedder from the Berlin Crocs. Full squad listed below.

In terms of worldfootynews.com's evolving World Rankings, Germany are currently ranked 13th in the world, and the current difference up and down means neither a win or a loss will be enough to put them into 12th ahead of Canada, or see them drop to 14th below Japan. France are currently unranked, not having played any 16/18-a-side tests, and this match will see them enter the provisional rankings.

The Scottish Australian Rules Football League saw the Edinburgh Bloods host 2011 Haggis Cup Champions the Glasgow Sharks this weekend, the first meeting of the year between Scotland's two oldest Australian rules football clubs.

On a sunny but blustery day in Edinburgh it was the Glasgow Sharks that drew first blood in this contest, taking a three goal lead kicking with the wind. This proved to be a wake up call for the Edinburgh Bloods and Travis Marshall pegged a goal back before the quarter time hooter.

The Bloods then had the wind advantage but fell further behind when the Sharks hero from last week's Haggis Cup, Adam Jack, slotted from just inside the scoring zone. This however marked the end of the scoring for the Sharks, who lost Jack to a dead leg and with his injury went their attacking momentum. Another injury to defender Andy Butler didn't help the Sharks cause and the Bloods capitalised by piling on the points.

The 8th Annual Haggis Cup was held at Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow on Saturday 9th April, bringing 8 club teams from across Europe together for an Australian Rules festival.

The eight team competition saw the Glasgow Sharks, Edinburgh Bloods, Huddersfield Rams, Dublin Demons, Aberdeen Dingoes, Wimbledon Hawks, Milano Footy club and Solna Axemen battle it out with the endeavour to become cup winners.

The semi-final saw Glasgow Sharks take on Edinburgh Bloods and Wimbledon Hawks against the Huddersfield Rams. With Glasgow and Wimbledon just shading their opponents in highly competitive semi-finals a close grand final promised to follow.

In an intense 10 minute halves format the crowd was right behind the home team in the grand final. It was finally Glasgow’s chance to shine as the sun beat down and the Sharks came away victorious for the first time in 8 attempts. Glasgow 31 defeated a brave but tiring Wimbledon 15.

AFL Europe board member Douglas Hunter of Glasgow has seen the Haggis Cup grow considerably in both size and quality over its 8 years. "We could not have asked for better spring weather to hold the annual Haggis Cup. The competition was fierce, fair and played with great sportsmanship. We are very pleased to see the obvious commitment and passion for the sport from all teams and support volunteers," Hunter said.

The Berlin Crocs last week played the first matches of their new Berlin metro league, with the West Berlin Eagles defeating the East Berlin Mariners, and the North Berlin Crows defeating the South Berlin Demons.

The Crocs, who will celebrate the club's 10 year anniversary later this year, are the second German club to start a metro league, with the Munich Roos founding the three team Bayern Liga in 2010.

The four Berlin metro teams are playing 9-a-side, with 6 rounds to be held on Thursday evenings throughout the season, allowing for players to get more game time in between the Berlin Crocs fixtures in the AFLG National League, as well as offering an introduction to the sport for new recruits.

Crocs coach Troy Pedder says the Crocs currently have over 50 players on their list, with 35 playing in the first round of the Berlin league. The club is hoping to grow this to around 80 by the end of 2011, and add a fifth metro team next year.