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The first day of the US Nationals are done and Denver, Belmont Shore and Aspen are the only remaining unbeaten sides going into the Cup quarter-finals in San Francisco.

In each of the four pools, the top two sides went through to the Cup quarters which will be played on Sunday, and the bottom two sides moved into the Pool quarters played on Saturday with players looking to gain recognition ahead of next week's All-Star Championships in New York.

The three unbeaten teams were joined by Chicago Lions who won Pool C, and the four runner-ups Life, Old Blue, SFGG and Atlanta Old White in search of the coveted Cup title.

In Pool A there was plenty of excitement during the day. Denver and Life played out a tough encounter first up, with the Barbarians prevailing 14-10.

Denver moved on to defeat Tempe 29-7 and then Schuylkill River 24-0 to win Pool A with Life also beating these two sides 22-7 and 24-5.

“We wanted to come out and play our game and we did that,” said Denver’s Jacob Humphrey. “I don’t think anyone was concerned about Life. They were a good side. It was the first game, nine o’clock in the morning and everyone’s working the rust off.”

Denver Teddy Omondi was a huge attacking threat with thanks to Dan Murphy and Dewon Reed who gained the territorial advantage before sending Omondi up the middle to score.

“We have a certain style of play that we know how to do and we try to stick with that,” added Humphrey.

In Pool B Belmont Shore hammered Chicago Griffins 40-0, completed another shut out against Old Blue 14-0 and edged a hard-working OMBAC 17-7, although they struggled slightly against their SoCal rivals. Every tackle was big and Peter Sio and Dallen Stanford had to put in excellent performances to take the win.

“That was our first try with that lineup and it took a while to adjust,” Sio said. “In Southern Cal there wasn’t a lot of competition, but a lot of guys have played a higher level. It was a really physical game. It comes down to who wants it more.”

Pool C was a little more confusing. Chicago Lions looked unstoppable early on, defeating a very substandard-looking SFGG 21-0, and then shutting out Glendale 26-0. Jeremy Nash was on form and was enormously hard to bring down, and with the team working together, especially on defence, they were effective.

SFGG, who had looked bad against Chicago, rebounded in the second half to beat NOVA 21-14 thanks in large part to a big try from Jone Naqica.

“It was must-win,” said Naqica. “We are a slow-starting team, and the team that plays us at the beginning of the day gets an advantage. We started later to show how we can play. We turned NOVA around from an attacking lineout at our five and we turned it around and scored. That was all heart from the guys.”

NOVA then upset Chicago 21-19 in a thriller that saw them win with a final try at the end of the match through USA Sevens player PJ Komongnan after they had beaten Glendale 24-0 in the first match of the day. SFGG therefore needed to win by more than 33 against Glendale to take second spot and put Nova into the bottom eight.

They exploded out of the blocks and Thretton Palamo was a menace and put together several important attacking runs, which Naqica, Arona Palamo, Danny LaPrevotte and Mile Pulu all took advantage of and they all had a hand in an amazing 45-0 victory.

In Pool D Aspen and Atlanta Old White dominated. Old White, with Richard Kanda, Leslie Mango and Luke Waikamakama playing superbly, were speedy and exciting. Aspen were more balanced, but saw Mike Palefau, especially, play well. Football convert Leonard Peters showed he knows how to play rugby too.

Old White and Aspen both held off Milwaukee and Bostonto set up an exciting finale against each other in the last round of pool matches. An early Peters try set Aspen on their way during the defence of their title and they never looked back, winning 26-5.

“We’ve gotten better each game, which is what we wanted,” said Aspen’s Merritt Johnson. “Defence is our main goal, rather than offense.”

“We’re not about one or two players, we don’t train that way,” Johnson said. “Last year we came into this thing and nobody knew who we were except Mike. And we won the whole thing. Now they have seven guys to worry about instead of three.”

In the Pool quarters, Boston, NOVA, Skhuykill River and OMBAC progressed to the semi-finals and Glendale, Milwaukee, Chicago Griffins and Tempe were all eliminated.

In the Cup quarters Denver meet Old Blue, SFGG face Aspen, Chicago Lions play Atlanta Old White and Belmont Shore meet Life.

Results and fixtures:

A Denver 14 Life 10
A Schuylkill River 35 Tempe 0
D Atlanta Old White 31 Milwaukee 14
D Aspen 17 Boston 7
C NOVA 24 Glendale 0
C Chicago Lions 21 SFGG 0
B Old Blue 19 OMBAC 10
B Belmont Shore 40 Chicago Griffins 0

A Denver 29 Tempe 7
A Life 22 Schuylkill River 7
D Atlanta Old White 17 Boston 5
D Aspen 42 Milwaukee 0
C SFGG 21 NOVA 14
C Chicago Lions 26 Glendale 0
B Belmont Shore 14 Old Blue 0
B OMBAC 38 Chicago Griffins 7

A Denver 24 Schuylkill River 0
A Life University 24 Tempe 5
D Aspen Atlanta 26 Old White 5
D Boston 45 Milwaukee 7
C NOVA 21 Chicago Lions 19
C SFGG 45 Glendale 0
D Old Blue 35 Chicago Griffins 12
D Belmont 17 OMBAC 7

Pool Quarters
Boston 26. Glendale 14
NOVA 42 Milwaukee 7
Schuylkill River 33 Chicago Griffins12
OMBAC 47 Tempe 0

Cup Quarters (Sunday)
Denver v. Old Blue
SFGG v. Aspen
Chicago Lions v. Atlanta Old White
Belmont Shore v. Life University