Our heroes at the Asian Touch Championships

Now this is going to take some explaining.....

Korea Touch restores pride at Asian Touch Champs Day 2

Clearly the Seoul-Tans had something up their sleeves after Saturday's showing as they were able to the raise their performance with two wins out of three on the second day to finish a creditable fifth place in the "open mixed" event. They capped their performance in a ping-pong battle with Southerners in the play-offs, overturning an earlier loss against the same opposition.
Earlier in the day, Amanda darted over for the touchdown that secured a second win over Beijing.

Ice-baths and the massaging of tired limbs clearly helped the second day's performance as did a growing team spirit; this is a team that wears its heart on its sleeve which certainly helped members to gel. Captain Nathan, disappointed by the results on day one, rose to the occasion with the help of Dutch Rudders representative, Cody.

A very enjoyable tournament with plenty of moments to remember and lots of teams at the Asian Champs are now weighing up the idea of travelling to Seoul for ITS 2009.

Seoul Tans Touch team start badly at day one of Asia Club Championships

Coming up against some very strong sides in the hotly contested "open mixed" section, Seoul Tans fought some hard battles but came away with just one win from six. The conditions were good underfoot on beautiful grass pitches but the temperature and humidity were brutal.

A lack of team preparation was probably the single most important cause for the poor return but by the end of the day, the Korean representative team was certainly struggling for fitness.
Full report and pics tomorrow, I hope.

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

Seoul-tans Touch team prepares for Asian Touch Champs

With team members from several of Korea's Touch teams and from different parts of the country, preparation has not been ideal for the squad...just half of them practiced together last Saturday so it will all be down to learning on the hoof at next weekend's Asia Touch Championships in Bangkok.
This is a first entry to the ATF Club Championships for a team from Korea and a squad of 11 will travel to play in the Open Mixed tournament, competing with seven other teams in what looks like a pretty high standard competition (Monsoon from Singapore as well as teams from China and Brotown must be stacked with people flying in from NZ).
A trip like this is very expensive, especially considering the extremely high entry fee for teams but it is an important investment for Korea to make as it helps tie the local organisation in with the regional governing body. Generous sponsorship has lessened the load on individuals selected which is a tribute to the long term planning of the Korea Touch Association and the benefit of running the International Touch Seoul tournament each year.
Later this year, after ITS 2009 which will be held in September, Korea is also intending to send a team to compete in the Shanghai tournament.

Pics from England Counties visit to Korea

The crowd was really pretty good!!

And the locals enjoyed meeting the England Counties players!!

And the boys enjoyed their transport courtesy sponsors Bentley!!