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.

While the NAI 7s serve as a competitive battleground for kids all across the country, it’s also a recruiting battleground for the top collegiate programs in men’s and women’s rugby. In the 2019 tournament, we caught up with players heading to the likes of BYU, Life, Lindenwood, St. Mary’s, Army, Queens, Central Washington, and Davenport among other great programs. For players keen on taking their game a step further, NAI 7s is a great showcase to capture the attention of scouts and coaches in attendance. 

As we head into the 2021 edition of the tournament, let’s take a look at some of the returning champions from 2019:

Belmont Shore U14 Boys & Girls

Arguably the teams of the tournament two years ago, Belmont Shore’s youngest squads put on a clinic in the U14 division, both cruising to first place finishes. More so than the results, what stood out was the advanced game sense and skill levels of the youngsters from California. With two additional years of development under their belts, you have to be excited to watch how these two go in the U16 bracket. 

United U18 Girls

The hometown United Rugby girls took the U18 open trophy home in 2019 and, while there will be new faces in 2021, they’ll want to see the same old results. United overcame a 14-0 halftime deficit in that 2019 final to defeat Aztec rugby on the final play of the game, which should be a warning shot to any team in the competition that there’s no quit in this group. 

Rhino Rugby U18 Boys

The boys from SoCal took the U18 open prize in an absolute barn-burner over their Belmont Shore rivals, winning 22-19 at the death in one of the best games of the tournament. Like the United girls, this group will have plenty of turnover from 2019, but the same never-say-die ethos will be there all the same. 

EIRA U18 Boys Invitational

There was no doubt who stole the show at the 2019 showcase - anyone there will tell that would be EIRA. With little more than a sweat broken throughout the competition, these boys rolled through the NAHS invitational at NAI undefeated and hardly threatened. A host of those boys are now plying their trade at the nation’s best rugby schools, so there are some big shoes to fill here. It would be nigh impossible to duplicate last year’s efforts, but anything in the somewhat resembling 2019 might be enough for another first-place finish.