Korean Match Official Development and Hirabayashi

Taizo Hirabayashi is one of the top rugby referees in the world, and he is the only referee in the IRB top referee panel who is not from Tier 1 rugby nations (Japan is Tier 2).

He was born in Japan and started playing rugby when he was 5. Then he studyed and played rugby in Australia until he became a full-time Referee Development Officer for the JRFU and the Technical Advisor for a Top League team in Japan, IBM Big Blue Rugby Club.

Now he is the most famous professional rugby referee in Asia and I can't deny the fact that he is the the fruit of aggressive investment of JRFU.

For further information about him:

http://www.rugbyinasia.com/japan/279-9/taizo-makes-history

http://www.irb.com/jwc/news/newsid=2032339.html#hirabayashi+flies+japanese+flag+jwc

Nevertheless, Korea has no referee on the ARFU (Asia Rugby Football Union) top referee panel so we can't see any Korean referees in Asian Five Nations Rugby Tournament although Korea has the second best rugby team in Asia.

However, now KRU has recognized the importance of match offcials for the game and started the development program for match offcials. We started the CMO course (Coach of Match Official) in May thanks to ARFU and the generous sponsor for KRU, Standard Chartered First Bank, helped and sponsored a match official education program for Korean referees with top referees and a referee coach from England.

When can we see a Korean referee like Taizo and see him referee in A5N?

CMO candidates evaluate Taizo's performance and work on stats at the Korea-Hong Kong match

Korean referees ask a question

Taizo explains his opinion about his decision