It was a tour of two very different halves; off the field and on the field. According to the England Counties management, they have never received a better reception than in Korea and from the moment they were met by photographers flashbulbs on their arrival last Monday in Incheon Airport, the England Counties lit up Korean rugby.
The KRU had invited England Counties with a view to raising the profile of rugby; a minnow of a sport in Korea with around 1500 registered players. The second objective was to upgrade their ability to host foreign teams and finally they wanted to use the visit to raise playing standards at youth and senior level.
Publicity was planned and executed to perfection, helped by the announcement of a slug of sponsorship from Standard Chartered First Bank. Coverage of that and the England Counties visit was extensive in Korean and English language media and the outreach work with schools attracted similar attention, culminating in a slot on the KBS primetime news the evening before the match http://sports.kbs.co.kr/news.php?kind=c&id=1788194 (click on the phot and play with the Active X installation and linespeed). The public responded and the Friday evening match, an awkward time for many Koreans and staged at a fairly remote stadium, still attracted a crowd of nearly 2000 spectators.
The visitors enjoyed superb hotel and training facilities but had to work hard throughout their time in Korea. Training sessions were followed by outreach work with school teams and scores of youngsters from five middle and high schools enjoyed a new brand of training with the added bonus of an ad hoc English lesson! With five schoolteachers in their squad, the English had plenty of good coaching resources at their disposal. In addition, the warm up match gave newly formed Seoul Colts their first outing with a 10’s match against the famous YangJung High School rugby team.
The big match itself pitched a Korean Rugby Union Presidents XV against the England Counties. The tourists management had been impressed enough by what they saw of school teams to be wary of the senior side but their caution was unnecessary….they simply blew away a Korean side with simple attacking rugby which was unrelenting throughout the eighty minutes. The hosts were dogged by selection difficulties leading up to the match; players at Japanese clubs were unavailable and some ill-judged decisions led to players being withdrawn ahead of the following week’s domestic competition. Supporters found the rationale for that difficult to understand but nevertheless still enjoyed the Counties exhibition of skills, even though it was all over as a contest after just fifteen minutes. A solitary interception try for the Korean side late in the game did raise the biggest cheer and a penalty took them into double figures before the Counties hit the century mark as they scored 16 tries in their final score of 108-10.
Given the huge margin, it is hard to imagine senior rugby will have learnt much from the match except to understand the size of the gap they have to bridge. The impression that the schoolboy level rugby is on a better footing suggests that learning may stagnate in club rugby which would confirm the need for even more exposure to foreign teams in Korea. In which case, Korean rugby needs to pick itself up, lick its wounds and fight on!
More info on http://www.rugby.or.kr/england
The KRU had invited England Counties with a view to raising the profile of rugby; a minnow of a sport in Korea with around 1500 registered players. The second objective was to upgrade their ability to host foreign teams and finally they wanted to use the visit to raise playing standards at youth and senior level.
Publicity was planned and executed to perfection, helped by the announcement of a slug of sponsorship from Standard Chartered First Bank. Coverage of that and the England Counties visit was extensive in Korean and English language media and the outreach work with schools attracted similar attention, culminating in a slot on the KBS primetime news the evening before the match http://sports.kbs.co.kr/news.php?kind=c&id=1788194 (click on the phot and play with the Active X installation and linespeed). The public responded and the Friday evening match, an awkward time for many Koreans and staged at a fairly remote stadium, still attracted a crowd of nearly 2000 spectators.
The visitors enjoyed superb hotel and training facilities but had to work hard throughout their time in Korea. Training sessions were followed by outreach work with school teams and scores of youngsters from five middle and high schools enjoyed a new brand of training with the added bonus of an ad hoc English lesson! With five schoolteachers in their squad, the English had plenty of good coaching resources at their disposal. In addition, the warm up match gave newly formed Seoul Colts their first outing with a 10’s match against the famous YangJung High School rugby team.
The big match itself pitched a Korean Rugby Union Presidents XV against the England Counties. The tourists management had been impressed enough by what they saw of school teams to be wary of the senior side but their caution was unnecessary….they simply blew away a Korean side with simple attacking rugby which was unrelenting throughout the eighty minutes. The hosts were dogged by selection difficulties leading up to the match; players at Japanese clubs were unavailable and some ill-judged decisions led to players being withdrawn ahead of the following week’s domestic competition. Supporters found the rationale for that difficult to understand but nevertheless still enjoyed the Counties exhibition of skills, even though it was all over as a contest after just fifteen minutes. A solitary interception try for the Korean side late in the game did raise the biggest cheer and a penalty took them into double figures before the Counties hit the century mark as they scored 16 tries in their final score of 108-10.
Given the huge margin, it is hard to imagine senior rugby will have learnt much from the match except to understand the size of the gap they have to bridge. The impression that the schoolboy level rugby is on a better footing suggests that learning may stagnate in club rugby which would confirm the need for even more exposure to foreign teams in Korea. In which case, Korean rugby needs to pick itself up, lick its wounds and fight on!
More info on http://www.rugby.or.kr/england
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