The pre-tournament predictions came almost to fruition with Axemen backman, Brendan Egan, winning European gold with the Irish Warriors and also picking up a Team Europe jumper to boot. Egan was never far from the best afield in each of his games and kicked a late running goal to seal a tight contest in the Grand Final against co-host Denmark. Congratulations to Brendan and to the Irish team on their historic and well-deserved victory.

Mats “El Presidente” Wurmbach featured strongly for Germany and played some great footy in the ruck in their win against Finland, and in the pool matches against Sweden and Croatia. A couple of solid efforts that are sure to catch the eye of the Team Sweden selectors.

Rickard “Bambi” Barrefelt picked up a bronze medal with the mighty Swedish Elks, who defeated the highly credentialed Great Britain Bulldogs in the 3rd place final.  Noted for his speed and intensity at the ball, Rickard kicked a few goals for the Elks and made a number of clinical tackles and clearances when the elks were under pressure.

Finally, a special thank you goes out to the Axemens playing photographer, Frank Heuts, who was present in Malmö for the final two rounds.

The next stop on the European circuit is the Euro Cup 9s in Milan, Italy on October 2nd.  Here’s hoping that the Axemen will be well represented in this tournament as well.

Photos courtesy of Frank Heuts and Olsin Foto: http://www.olsin.se/sportfoto/