A few teams in the Boys Open HS 7s at the LVI emerged as true title contenders after Thursday's pool play.

The Utah Lions brought a combination of tough defense and explosive punishment of turnovers to go 3-0 in Pool A. Ma'afu Mahina epitomized that play with a spectacular try against Smokey Mountain, pushing away a couple of tacklers, fending off two more, and the tightroping along the sideline while outpacing the remaining defenders.

South Side Irish came second in Pool A. After starting poorly, the big Chicago squad learned their lessons, and kept ahold of the ball to go 2-1.

Tennessee Tri-Star Blue produced a good brand of team rugby to win Pool B, with the KC Cougars doing what South Side did, learning from their mistakes and nailing down their defense to hold off supposedly superior opposition.

In Pool C the Littleton Eagles were just too big and strong and overpowered their opposition. In Pool D, Atlantis was outstanding. They, more than anyone, did well to retain their kickoffs and thus were often on the attack. With several of the players being friends from the DC area who have played together since they were very young, the Atlantis squad gelled quickly and were clinical in winning all three games.

Pool E was won by British Columbia, with Coach Shane Thompson saying he wanted to give his 2nd side more time to develop and play in their own competition. They did that.

And View Park Prep may not have been playing much 7s, since they are in the middle of the 15s season in Southern California, but it didn't seem to matter, as they raced past their opposition.

Here are the scores and standings (with a couple of missing results)