Return in 50 years

Japanese rule

This is not a history section but I'd like to tell you the history of Korea briefly to explain the history of Korean Rugby. Korea was first colonized by Japan in 1910 and became free and independent in 1945. It was the period when Rugby was first introduced to Korea by Japanese.

The record found in the first president of the KRU's memoirs says although 1923 was the first year of the introduction, rugby in Korea thrived from 1930s when the first university team, Korea University followed by Yangchung and Paichai Highschool, was established because only Japanese people were allowed to play the sport. 1923 is exactly 100 years later when rugby was first started in Rugby School, England.

-The first President of the KRU-

While Japan had a number of middle school, highschool, university, and even corporate-owned teams and a rugby stadium only for Japanese in Korea, Korea had its heyday with only the three teams. Korea university beat Japanese teams 113-0, 90:0, and 80:0 in the qualification round for the national championship, but they could not win the championship finishing as runner-up twice.

To put a break on them, Japanese used assault and even police force with wooden swords and knives and attempted to pass the buck to Korea.

The division of Korea and Korean War

In June 1950 the Korean War broke out and finished in 1953. During the war, a game between the Welsh and New Zealand Regiment took place in the battlefield. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/4012593.stm

-A picture of the game at the Welsh regiment's museum in Cardiff Castle-

The Royal Navy team tour to Korea

Just 7 years from the end of the war, a team from English Royal Navy toured to Korea and played the Korea Air Force Academy. Surprisingly, KAFA won the match with the score of 9-0.
(Video clip: http://film.ktv.go.kr/pop/movie_pop.jsp?srcgbn=KV&mediaid=250&mediadtl=1850&gbn=DH&quality=H)

- English Navy Tour in 1960-

(http://touchtagrugby.blogspot.com/2008/12/royal-navy-england-navy-vs-korea-air.html)

Rugby in Korea from 60s-80s

Rugby in Korea kept growing in these periods with military regimes since rugby is very suit to train soldiers and these periods were when the goverments exploted sports for political propaganda. Even one of the former presidents of Korea, Noh Tae-woo, played rugby for Korea Military Academy for 4 years. Korea won the Asian Rugby Championship in 82, 86, 88, 90 thanks to active interaction with overseas teams.

Rugby in Korea from 90s to Present

At that time, Korea was still the only country which was a threat to Japan and had the stongest 7s rugby team in Asia. We beat some strong rugby nations such as Fiji and France in Hong Kong Sevens and won Plate Chmpionship several times.

Since the first rugby competition was held at the Asian games in 1998, we have won a total of 4 gold medals and one silver medal. (1998 15s and 7s gold/ 2002 15s and 7s gold/ 2006 7s silver 15s was exluded)

-The 2006 Asian Game Rugby Sevens Final defeat by Japan in the last minute-

However, after the 2002 Asian games, we failed to shift interest in rugby to the next generation. As a result, Korean rugby was weakened due to the lack of players, coaches, teams, and referees.

-2003 Korea-Japan game, catastrophic moment with the score difference 83-

Preparation for the Future

In 1999 when I was a highschooler and nearly 40 years after the Royal Navy's tour, King Edward VII School came to Seoul and played against my highschool. My school won the match and I recieved the man of the match.

At the after match function, when we communicated with them with the help of volunteer student interpreters since no one could speak English at all, my dream for rugby in Korea was brought to me by this experience. To realize my long-cherished dream and share the dream with young rugby players, we are slowly making progress for the development of rugby here in Korea.

- King Edward VII Tour to Seoul in 1999-

This year 10 years from my experience with King Edward's tour and nearly 50 years from Royal Navy's tour, we are planning to host England Counties tour to Seoul. I do hope our little endeavor can move things forward and can help inspire Korean ruggers so that my dreams for Korean rugby will come true in the future.