American youth rugby’s premier sevens tournament returns this weekend, with the North American Invitational 7s tournament kicking off this Friday in Salt Lake City, Utah. A total of 75 boys teams and 44 girls teams covering U14, U16, U18, and U23 age groups will compete over the course of two days at the beautiful Salt Lake Regional Athletic Complex.

This year’s tournament will be the final stop for the NAI 7s which features teams from the US, Canada and Caribbean.

Having a comfortable pair of rugby shorts can greatly impact one’s performance during training and games. When choosing shorts, you want to take into consideration the fit and the durability, especially if you’re going to be in the scrum. The last thing you would want is for your shorts to rip during a scrum because the fabric was not durable enough. In addition to the durability, you want to make sure the shorts are breathable and comfortable for tackling, running, and potentially kicking. If you’re in the market for a new pair of shorts, here are five different types of shorts that you can check out:

One of the great things about rugby is that it's a multi-skilled sport which lends itself well to crossover athletes. Particularly in a sports-mad country like the United States, we see tons of players seamlessly make the transition from other sports to rugby. 

Somewhere, someday, somebody in 19th century thought to themselves, "Hmm, rugby would be a lot cooler if there were less players and more space to work with." The solution to this pondering was the invention of rugby sevens, which as the name would suggest, involves two teams of sevens playing on the same size pitch as a standard rugby game. 

What does it mean when someone throws around the terms "lineout" or "scrum"? And no, a scrum is not when a mosh pit of football or basketball players fight for a loose ball. These are specific rugby terms, and they refer to what are known as "set pieces" in a rugby game. 

As far as team sports go, rugby and football are probably the two most physical when it comes to collisions and impact on the body. While both games have implemented rules over the years to make play safer, there is still an inherit risk we take every time we step onto the field to play either rugby or football. 

PLAY Sports Coalition Press Release

So you may have heard of rugby, seen it on TV once or twice, or maybe seen some folks playing at a local field or park, but you really have no idea how it's played or what any of the rules are. 

Imagine you're a rugby coach, and you've coached your team for a few years. While the results have been good, and everyone's having fun, you can't help but notice that the team hasn't shown any marked signs of improvement from year to year. 

As we navigate through these trying times both nationwide and worldwide, we must do so without one of our greatest reliefs. 

If you don't know, well now you know: the Woodlands Youth Rugby club is among the best programs in the entire country, and if you need any more proof, look no further than its accomplishments over the past weekend. 

Lawrence Dallaglio's towering rugby career originated through a sense of wanting to belong after a family tragedy and he is now using that experience to help give hope to children excluded from mainstream education.

This weekend on FloRugby, American subscribers can watch both the Wales vs Barbarians game on Saturday at 9:45 am (ET), and the New York 7s all day Saturday!

To cap off this three-part series, I would like to recognize all of the hard work done out there across the American rugby landscape, as well as encourage more of us to get involved.