Marshall, Va - Rugby Virginia, has announced its 5^th, two-day Youth Rugby Tournament to be held Saturday July 28 and Sunday July 29 at Northern Fauquier Community Park in Marshall, Virginia.

The tag rugby tourney ( U7, U9, U11, U13, U15 brackets) with approximately 35 teams will be Saturday and the tackle rugby tourney (U13, U15, U17, U19 – high school)  with approximately 25 team s will be Sunday. Over six hundred boys and girls will be participating this year.

The tournament is being hosted by Prince William Youth Rugby.  Springfield Youth Club’s  Director of Rugby and Rugby Virginia’s Youth Co-Commissioner, Jeff Rupp commented  “ We’ve definitely seen year-over-year growth with 15% more teams in the tournament  this year (52 last year, 60 this year ). The U9 and U13 boys tackle groups have doubled the number of teams, and U11 grew as well. And this year we are adding a couple of U7 tag exhibition matches for the really little kids. Seems like everyone’s hard work is paying off. It’s clear that kids rugby is steadily growing in Virginia.”

Rugby Virginia will introduce girls and boys high school seven-a-side “Olympic  Rugby” to the Sunday tackle tournament. Rugby is once again an Olympic sport and will appear in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Rugby was last included in the modern Olympics in 1904, 1908, 1920 and 1924.

For the fourth year, the Rugby Virginia Youth Tournament is an official event in the Subway Commonwealth Games of Virginia. The state-wide Olympic-style games feature  55 events and over 9,500 athlete participants.