The weather is hot, the thunderstorms have rolled in, and the days are longer than ever, which can only mean one thing – it’s time for summer 7s. The XV season closed in thrilling fashion back in the middle of May, with five teams being crowned National Champions in Chicago, IL. The newness and the glory got its time to shine for a few weeks, before the next challenge rolled around the corner. Win or lose in the XV, it’s all wiped clean when it comes time for summer 7s. Enough of the dramatics, it’s time to get into the action.
This year I’m giving you three articles – one mid-season recap (this one), one end of season recap/Nationals pool preview, and one final Nationals summary. For this article I’m going to go region to region taking inventory of the tournaments that have taken place and the teams that have put their hands up as front runners for this years road to Nationals. How do teams qualify? Great question. While all of the below regions send their top men’s and top women’s teams to Madison, the rest of the teams must apply to fill out the bracket. What looks good on an application? Firstly – your season record. The better you do in your region, the better chance you’ll have of getting picked. Secondly – the quality of competition and relative challenge of your region. If you’ve boasted five tournament wins but all have been at social D3 tournaments, it’s not going to impress as much as coming second or third against some of the top club names in the country. Which leads up to the third quality examined in the application process – historical performance at Nationals. If you manage to get a bid every year and finish in last place, it’s not going to look great. Now if you entered as one of the bottom seeds last year and finished in the top four, it’s going to shine on that resume. There’s also details about finances and player rosters, but essentially you’ve got to prove that you are a competitor and you will be there (because flaky teams that drop out just ruin the brackets). Enough of that though! That’s boring admin stuff. We’re here for the rugby, the action, the month of tournaments that have taken place that we want to know about! Well friends, wait no longer, because here is your 2026 mid-season 7s Recap.
The disclaimer – I’ve obtained score results from 7s divisional reps, tournament organizers, and official score reports posted online. If you see a discrepancy, please feel free to give a shout. Added commentary is for fun, I’ve got no stake in the outcomes of these matches.
Let’s get started!
Northeast
We’re going to start in the Northeast, who are halfway done with their qualifying season.
On the women’s side of the competition, last year’s top seed Boston is back to defend their automatic qualification against teams like New York, Beantown, and White Plains. Boston is a familiar name at 7s Nationals, placing 6th last year after losing a tight Plate semifinal match 10-5. The Northeast women’s teams have two qualifiers this year, the first taking place at Newport on June 27th, and the second happening on July 11th in Saratoga. Boston went four for four at Newport, but not by very large margins. Their first match was the biggest difference, taking down Beantown 29-7; but from there the games got tighter. They topped White Plains by only a conversion, 17-15, and finally defeated New York 17-12. The Championship Final pitted New York against Boston, where both teams managed to raise the stakes, but Boston still emerged victorious, final score 26-19. New York finished second, while Beantown took third and White Plains finished fourth overall. With a pool play game result of two points between the top and bottom team in the Northeast, it’s anyone’s game to win at Saratoga.
Over on the men’s side of the competition, we’ve got two of four tournaments completed, and XV D1 National Champions Old Blue are trying to do the impossible, the National Title Double, taking home both the National XV and 7s titles in the same year. They’ve gotten off to a pretty good start, bagging two tournament wins in June to take a strong lead into the latter half of the Northeast qualifying season. Old Blue finished third overall at Nationals last year, defeating fellow Northeasterners Mystic River in the bronze medal game. A third and fourth place National finish from the same region is pretty impressive, and could be an excellent bargaining chip to allow a third Northeastern team in this year. And who would be the contenders for those possible bids to Nationals? Well, Mystic River look good. They came in second in both tournaments, losing to Old Blue (who I am sure they are tired of playing against). White Plains has a bit of an edge over NYAC right now. They came in fourth at Long Island 7s and third at Newport 7s, while NYAC took third and fifth respectively. As of right now it’s still technically anyone’s game, as a poor finish from Old Blue could drop them down the standings pretty drastically. However, if any team wants to take that automatically qualifying top spot, they’re going to have to prevent Old Blue from winning any more tournaments. The next opportunity will be on July 11th as the teams head to Saratoga 7s before closing their season out on the 18th at Old Blue.
Mid-Atlantic
Rolling down the East coast, let’s check in on the home of the reigning Men’s National 7s Champions, NOVA. NOVA took the crown last year after a three year run from fellow Mid-Atlantic based side, NAV. Now all the pressure is on NOVA to defend their title and bring the trophy back to the Mid-Atlantic for the fifth year in a row, but the competition is fierce. The mid-Atlantic sent three men’s teams to Nationals last year: NOVA (1st), Beltway Elite (8th), and Schuylkill River (12th). Two teams in the top eight is notable, and Schuylkill River are historically very good at 7s, regularly making the Cup playoff rounds.
This year we’ve already finished three of four qualifying tournaments, with the final one scheduled to take place on July 11th at Schuylkill River. NOVA have once again established themselves as the team to beat, taking home three tournament titles to lock down a first-place finish in the Mid-Atlantic. At the season opening tournament, Red, White, and Blue 7s, NOVA actually lost in pool play to Beltway Elite 12-10. They were able to rally and notch a tight win over Schuylkill River at the end of pool play in order to qualify for the knockouts, but it was close. It came down to points differential to determine which two teams advanced to the final, which ended up being Schuylkill and NOVA. Beltway Elite claimed third place overall, unlucky to make it to the Championship game.
The second tournament, Billy Gardner 7s, had the same results as the first, but this time NOVA defeated Beltway in pool play 19-12 in order to take the top spot in the final. Schuylkill River almost made it a draw in the championship game, but NOVA scored at the death to take the lead 28-21, and take home the title.
In the final tournament of the month, Rites of Summer 7s, NOVA kept building, demolishing Legion Blume in pool play 71-0 and pulling off a 21-14 come from behind victory over Schuylkill River in the semifinals to meet Beltway Elite in the final. There they claimed their third title this season, and essentially locked down the automatic bid for Nationals. Schuylkill River and Beltway now have one more tournament to battle it out for second and third place, but both have performed valiantly this summer, going toe to toe with the best in the country. I think it’s very possible that we see three Mid-Atlantic men’s teams make the trip back to Madison.
On the women’s side of the tournament, four-time National 7s Champions, the Scion Sirens, are again setting the standard for excellence. After two tournaments, Scion have yet to lose a match, meeting Atlantic Women’s D1 powerhouse Philadelphia twice in the finals. Raleigh and the DC rounded out the top four at Red, White, and Blue 7s, but Raleigh is seeking qualification out of the South, while DC were unable to make a real statement against Scion. Last year three women’s teams from the Atlantic region made the trip to Madison; Scion took home the bronze while Philadelphia and Phoenixville finished 11th and 14th respectively. Phoenixville are out this year, after a splendid run to XV Nationals that finished in the National semifinal. Scion are well on their way to the automatic qualification, and Philadelphia are putting up a strong fight for an At-Large bid. We’re not sure if the Atlantic will have a third team qualify At-Large, but if DC are interested, they will definitely have to put on a show at Schuylkill 7s on July 11th.
South
Continuing our way down the coast, we’ve got the Southern region who have only had one men’s qualifying tournament so far, Vulcan 7s in Birmingham.
Last year wasn’t great for the South representatives at Nationals; the men had one team qualify, Life, who finished 16th, while the women had two teams qualify, Atlanta 2.0 Selects and Phoenix, who finished 12th and 13th respectively. Not the worst showing, but definitely room to build for the South. Vulcan 7s had a field of six mens teams competing for qualification including Apex 7s out of the Carolinas and NOLA who have bounced between the Red River and the South in terms of qualification. At Vulcan 7s it was Apex who took the title, edging out NOLA in the final, 24-0. Impressively, Apex managed to finish their day with only one try scored against them; from their pool play game against the Blitzbirds. With two tournaments left to play no one is guaranteed that top spot yet, but Apex have certainly set the standard. Next up is Christmas in July 7s on July 11th, followed by Hotlanta 7s on July 18th.
The women’s qualifying competition has not yet started, with their first of two tournaments being held on the 11th. It looks like Raleigh will join the competition, as well as the Trash Pandas out of Florida, but nothing is confirmed until game day. Raleigh lost out in the semifinals up in the Mid-Atlantic qualifiers last month, so we know they are getting their reps in. We don’t know if the Atlanta 2.0 Selects will return this year, but Phoenix will definitely be back after fielding two teams on June 20th at Cape Fear and Gulf Coast 7s, both non-qualifying tournaments.
Red River
We’ll just keep looping around the bottom of the country as we stop in on the Red River, who have one tournament down and two to go.
On the men’s side of the competition, the Austin Huns absolutely swept the first tournament, defeating the Austin Blacks in the semifinal 19-7 and Faith Family Rugby in the final 33-12. The Dallas Harlequins received second place in the qualification thanks to their 29-7 win over the Austin Blacks in the bronze match (Faith are not seeking qualification points). Both the Huns and the Harlequins made the trip to Nationals last year, with the Huns finishing 15th and the Quins finishing 11th. There’s two more tournaments left this year, Sheriff 7s in Dallas and Back in Black 7s the following weekend. It’s not too late for any team to claim the automatic qualification, but winning at least one of those two titles is essential to make that happen.
On the women’s side of the competition, the Rugby Mexico Serpientes took home first over the HEB Hurricanes, final score 24-15. Naturally Rugby Mexico aren’t looking to gain qualifying points to play at our National Club 7s, so HEB took the top points, while the Dallas Harlequins got 2nd with their bronze win over the sHARCs. HEB and the Quins both made the trip to Nationals last year, HEB finished 10th while Dallas finished 15th. Plenty of room for improvement for the teams out of Texas and the Red River region who may only be seeing one team from each qualify for Nationals this year. If they want to get an additional At-Large seed in the mix, they’re going to need to spice up the final two tournaments to make a strong case.
Midwest
Cutting North across the country, we’re now going to check in on the Midwest teams who are midway through their qualifier season. Midwest does it a little differently, they have three qualifier events followed by an invite-only Championship Event on July 25th. In order to qualify for a National bid, teams must attend at least two qualifier events and the Championship. So theoretically we could see the top team at the first two events not participate in the third but take it home in the Championship, or a team who has only played in one event so far play in the rest of the summer and take the top seed. Both of those scenarios are unlikely, because there’s so few competition opportunities before Nationals come around the corner, but keep it in the back of your mind.
Starting off with the men; St. Louis have put themselves in a great spot thanks to back to back tournament wins in June. The Bombers went 2-1 in pool play, losing 34-14 against Invictus in their last game before playoffs. They managed to top Detroit in the semifinal, setting up a rematch against Invictus in the final game. This one they almost identically reversed the scoreline, toppling Invictus 33-14 and taking home the trophy. The following weekend the Bombers went undefeated at Firehouse 7s, including two wins over Invictus, 24-7 in pool play, and 19-7 in the final. Despite Invictus coming second in the first two qualifiers, they are still making an excellent case for an At-Large bid. They blanked Cincinnati in the first match of Columbus 7s, stormed through the Lions in the semifinals 31-14, then snuck by the Lions again in the semifinals of Firehouse 7s, final score 19-12. Last year the Midwest had three men’s teams qualify, all finishing in the top eight. The Chicago Lions took home second, while the Detroit Tradesmen and the St. Louis Bombers finished 6th and 7th respectively. We’re not sure who will show at the third qualifier, but that Midwest Championship at the end of July is going to be a banger.
Over on the women’s side of the competition we have last year’s top two teams duking it out again for Midwest dominance. The Chicago Lions defeated Chicago North Shore in the National Championship final last year after finishing 2nd the year before and winning it all in 2023. The Lions and North Shore traded qualifier wins all season last year, pushing each other to be better and better, and eventually top the rest of the competition. This year, it’s all playing out the same way, as North Shore took home the first title, but the Lions nabbed the second. Both finals were Lions versus North Shore, a match that has quickly become an instant classic in National 7s history. I don’t hand out guarantees for At-Large bids, but something tells me that we’re going to see both Chicago clubs at Nationals once more; just call it a vibe.
Frontier/Mid-America
Sticking with the middle of the country, we’ve got our Mid-America/Frontier qualifying region. Only one tournament has taken place so far, that being Denver 7s, which only hosted men’s qualifying matches. Last year the Frontier region had one men’s and one women’s side represented at Nationals, the Denver Barbos who finished 9th, and the Colorado Grey Wolves who finished 16th. It’s not the easiest region to attend qualifiers due to the large size, and has less teams than almost any other region in the country. Despite all of this, every year Frontier has teams make the trip and rep their region proudly, including the Denver Barbos regularly placing in the top three. There were nine men’s teams in attendance at Denver 7s including Denver (obviously), Rugby Expo, Kansas City Blues, Kansas City RFC, the Gentlemen of Aspen, Vail, and the Omaha Goats. It must’ve been the altitude because the Barbos swept the competition at home, going undefeated through to the final, where they took down the Kansas City RFC 40-0 and claimed the first qualifier title this season. In fact, the Barbos had a total PD of 245-21 from five matches on the day. That’s almost 50 points scored per match; per 14-minute match. Yikes. The KC Blues finished third over the Gentlemen of Aspen, with a final score of 24-12. They managed to have the closest match of the day against Denver, losing 38-14 in the semifinals. Omaha took home fifth place, and are gearing up to host the next qualifier on July 11th. As I love to say, still anyone’s game; but it sure looks like the Barbarians are the team to beat this year.
On the women’s side of the competition, we have two teams declared their intent to play for National qualification, Denver Black Ice and the Colorado Grey Wolves. There was no women’s bracket at Denver 7s, and I’m not entirely sure if those sides will travel to the Mid-America qualifiers in July in order to compete for the top seed. Either way, based on last year’s finish, it’s unlikely two women’s teams will make the trip from the Frontier.
Pacific Northwest
Moving over to the West Coast, we’ve got our last three regions. We’ll start North and move down the coast in order to touch on them all, starting with the Pacific Northwest. Last year there was one men’s and two women’s teams from the PNW at Nationals. WAC sent both a men’s and women’s side, placing 14th and 5th respectively. The Oregon Sharks sent a women’s side who finished 9th. Last year we saw the Berkeley All Blues and Life West playing in a few PNW qualifiers on the women’s side, those two teams also made the trip to Nationals, making these competitions quite spicy.
For the men’s competition we are one tournament in; WAC took home first place at their namesake tournament, defeating the Oregon Sharks in the final. There was only one pool for the men’s comp, with four sides playing a round robin before heading into the knockout rounds. All four teams went into knockouts, with the pool play results pitting WAC against Seattle and Life West against the Sharks in the semifinals. The Sharks upset Life West to head to the final, despite losing to them in pool play 29-7. Life West had only lost 17-12 to WAC in the pools, so it was assumed that they would meet again in the final, but that’s just how 7s works. WAC took down the Sharks, taking the top qualifying points, followed by Oregon, Life West, and Seattle. We’re not sure how qualification is working out with NorCal and the PNW, but as we’re only one tournament in, we’ve got time to figure it out. Whichever way, it’s good for all teams to get some solid competition before trying their luck at Nationals.
The women have made it through two qualifiers, WAC 7s in Washington and Lucas-Bonilla 7s in Portland, Oregon. In the first, the teams were split into two pools of three, with WAC topping their pool confidently 2-0 and the ORSU Jesters going undefeated in their pool. In the semifinals WAC defeated the Oregon Sharks while Life West upset the Jesters to set up a rematch between WAC and Life West. In pool play WAC dominated their NorCal neighbors 29-, but in the final the tables were turned and Life West took home the crown. Fortunately for WAC women, Life West are seeking NorCal qualification and thus are not taking home any qualifier points from their win. This left WAC with top points, the ORSU Jesters with second, and the Oregon Sharks in third.
The second qualifier took place just last weekend in Oregon, and this time it was just the PNW sides. WAC smashed Boise in the final 43-5 while the Sharks won a gritty bronze match over the Jesters 22-17. Not only was the competition tough, but the weather didn’t hold out either, with not one but two lightning delays halting the tournament. If anything, it could be good preparation for Nationals, if history repeats itself in Wisconsin. Currently WAC women are in a confident lead in the standings, with Boise, the Sharks, and the Jesters all tied on 32 points.
Northern California
Moving down to Northern California, it looks like a couple of the women’s tournaments have taken place, but Life West is also playing up in the Pacific Northwest, so we’re not really sure what’s going on here. Last year Life West sent men’s and women’s teams to Nationals, while the Berkeley All Blues sent a women’s side. All three teams did reasonably well, with the All Blues making it to bronze to finish 4th, Life West women finishing 7th, and Life West men finishing in 10th place.
Life West men appear to have two tournaments already under their belt, with Marin 7s having taken place on June 13th and Life West 7s on June 27th. They were in a pool with San Jose and Silicon Valley, both of whom play D2 in the XV competition. The other pool hosted Olympic Club, Sacramento, and Santa Rosa, essentially rounding out the regular season D1/D2 hybrid comp. San Jose also made the trek to Life West 7s, but unfortunately there’s not a lot of information on that tournament either.
As of now, lots of unknowns in NorCal. We know there is some serious talent there, so despite not knowing, still be prepared for some big contenders out of the Bay Area heading to Nationals.
Southern California
We end in SoCal where teams are more or less halfway done with their qualifying tournaments. Last year we had two men’s sides and one women’s side make the trip to Nationals, with Belmont Shore taking 5th in the men’s, Eagle Rock finishing 13th, and the San Diego Surfers finishing 8th. The qualification schedule shows two tournaments done and dusted, with the men’s Santa Monica 7s and Sunsplash 7s wrapping up in June.
For the men’s competition, Belmont Shore took top marks out of Santa Monica, defeating Eagle Rock in the final. Santa Monica finished third overall over Belmont Shore 2 after a devestatingly close semifinal loss to Eagle Rock, 22-19. Belmont made it two for two when two weeks later they won gold at Sunsplash 7s, defeating Eagle Rock 12-0 in the final. It was a nailbiter of a semifinal for Belmont who took on their second side, only winning 19-14. There’s only one qualifier left for the men, on July 18th, but it looks like Belmont Shore are guaranteed their automatic spot as long as they finish in the top three. Eagle Rock are making a strong case for an At-Large bid, as well as Santa Monica who can’t be counted out yet. Depending on how the other regions shake out, we could see three SoCal teams make the cut.
In the women’s competition, Sunspash was the first qualifier of the year, getting out familiar faces like the San Diego Surfers, the Santa Monica Dolphins, West Coast Marines, Belmont Shore, and Temecula. The Surfers swept the competition, finishing 4-0 to take their first crown of the season. Their closest match was a 24-12 win over the Belmont Whales while their biggest differential was a 42-10 win over the Marines. The next qualifier for the women will be Surf N Turf 7s in San Diego on July 11th, followed by Santa Monica 7s on the 18th.
