• • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • Reddit
  • Stumble Upon
  • Furl

The semi-finals of the Championship Cup Series have been set at the Las Vegas Invitational. National champions Belmont Shore will tackle NOVA with Gents of Aspen meeting Chicago Lions in tomorrow morning’s match-ups at the $10,000 event.

Belmont Shore, including former Eagles Dallen Stanford, James Gillenwater, and the impressive Corey Blair were the class team on Friday breezing through the pool stages with wins over Glendale 47-0 and NYAC 40-0. The Southern Californian outfit was made to work harder in their quarter-final though, just edging New York based Old Blue 12-5. Aspen are another side looking particularly threatening and also impressed in the early rounds with comfortably wins over Old Blue (26-7) and OMBAC (33-5) with Mike Palefau leading the way.

They saved their best performance of the day in the last eight clash though motoring past Glendale 41-0. Perennial nearly-men Nova came up trumps in the match of the day after an intriguing quarter-final clash with Denver, who had beaten them last year at Nationals.

Despite Denver opening the scoring, with some direct and confrontational Sevens, it was Nova’s superior speed which proved the difference with former England Sevens winger David Smith bagging a second half brace. The 12-7 win puts Bill Gardener’s team into a semi-final with Belmont tomorrow. Chicago Lions are another side who have qualified through to the last four edging San Francisco by 26-21 in a free flowing and tense quarter-final.

Earlier the Lions had impressed in beating Kansas City Blue 24-17 in the Pools but must save their best performance of the weekend for Aspen in the semi-finals.

Samurai win Elite

Samurai International cruised to the Men’s Elite Sevens title only conceding two tries throughout the day in an almost perfect display.

The invitational powerhouse beat Fiji Uprising Resort in a lopsided final by 39-7. Henry Speight, Simon Hunt, and Aaron Myers all got on the scoresheet in a clinical performance. Myers subsequently will cover for England at tomorrow’s USA Sevens. In the semi-finals Samurai had taken down Grizzlies (53-7) with Uprising surviving a late comeback from French tourists Les Bleus (26-7).

In the quarter-finals Samurai were relentless in their 65-0 win over Hawaii, with the Grizzlies ending the tournament for Australian’s Burwood Blues by 38-5. Les Bleus looked slick against FC Rouges (61-0) with Uprising also putting a half-century on Turkish (52-0).

USA/China Women's Final

USA White will meet China on Sunday’s International Women’s Final set to take place on the main pitch at Sam Boyd stadium. With a round-robin format for the six sides involved, both China and USA White met each other in the first game of the day with the Americans running out 19-12 winners, with another exciting tussle set for the final.

USA White faced a determined Canada Universities in the first semi-final winning 17-7 with Lauren Shaughnessy (2) and Jenna Flateman going over the whitewash. China beat France in the other semi-final 26-14. USA Blue, a development side, and Germany were also present in Las Vegas.