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NLCS Jeju national rugby championsInternational school middle school boys make history at the 42nd National Youth Sports Championships
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¡ã The team lift the trophy. Photo courtesy NLCS Jeju

NLCS Jeju celebrated a landmark victory on May 27 as the Middle School Boys Rugby Team took the 42nd National Youth Sports Championships in Daegu. NLCS won all their four games to walk away with the title after beating Yeonsu in the final.

“Four games played and four games won. Dong-woo Seo was the MVP as voted by the Korean rugby union. He scored twice in the final and a couple times before that,” said coach, Daniel Long.

Irishman Long, a PE teacher at NLCS, described the competition as “cut-throat.”

 “It’s the first time an international middle school team has registered with the Korean rugby union [and] there’s certainly never been an international school that has won any medals, gold, silver, or bronze,” he said.

 

   
¡ã Photo courtesy NLCS Jeju


NLCS Jeju is one of three international schools at Jeju Global Education City and the only from Britain. Rugby, although having roots in England, is now a thoroughly international sport, despite rarely being played in Korea.

Long says “they didn’t have a clue” before they started and the students themselves admitted they thought it was American football. Now when asked to describe it one said, “bashing and injuring someone.” This is an image that Long has had to contend with.

“People have this idea, particularly in Korea in the medical field, that if you play rugby  you won’t grow, or you’ll shrink, or you’ll get injured,” said Long.

Despite these initial hurdles, the sport has started something of a craze at NLCS and it has given students a number of other lessons. The players spoke of becoming closer as friends, growing in confidence and learning to control their tempers. Long certainly feels that rugby has something different to offer.

 

   
¡ã Photo courtesy NLCS Jeju

 

“[Rugby] is a different game [to football]...you don’t have to score a goal to feel that you’ve done something brilliant in a game...it could be zero-zero and something could be happening all the time, a great tackle, a great line-out in a scrum,” he said.

Students have also been given something to focus on outside of their general studies.

“It gave us the opportunity to go away at weekends and play...I would imagine last year we went away a minimum every month to play,” said Long.

One of the biggest problems is finding teams to play against; Long and NLCS are trying to encourage other schools in the area to take up the sport.

 

   
¡ã Photo courtesy NLCS Jeju

 

“There are no other teams on Jeju...we have developed a link with Seogwang Elementary and we’ve started coaching there...we’d like to see some of the elementary schools, maybe middle schools, and we help them develop rugby and maybe in a few years down the line there will be a couple of teams on the island,” Long.

If the results at NLCS Jeju are anything to go by, Jeju could become something of a rugby hotbed.

“Because it’s so popular we could field at least two, possibly three, middle school teams...I would say that there’s not a single school in Korea that has as many middle school boys playing rugby and we are the only school in Korea playing elementary rugby,” said Long.

While the boys are in love with the game now, they didn’t always feel that way.

“I remember the boys in PE lessons and the first time it was drizzling a little bit and they all wanted to go back inside and were scared of the rain...my response was “you’re not sugarlumps,”” said Long.

     

 

   
¡ã Coach Daniel Long. Photo courtesy NLCS Jeju

 

“The first impressions of all the boys was, “Is that a football” and “No, I’m not playing that!” They got to play it and had a bit of fun and then they start enjoying it and aren’t afraid and then you’ve got a team...then others see it and think “I want a bit of that,”” he said.

Hard graft is part of the appeal of rugby and Long says that as opposed to football, physique is not a barrier to playing.

“It’s for all shapes and sizes as well...no matter what body shape you are you can fit into the team somewhere...Everyone’s got a place somewhere,” he said.“Rugby is a contact support, so you can go on the field, tackle, lock horns, have a battle and then after the game shake hands....I’ve seen the boys go out and battle, but at the end shake hands,” he said.

Contrary to expectations, the boys were in unison in how much they enjoyed playing rugby. One student had this to say to other students.

“Rugby is a sport  that can be played by anyone - the only thing that is stopping [you] is fear.”

 

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Darren SouthcottÀÇ ´Ù¸¥±â»ç º¸±â  
¨Ï Jeju Weekly 2009 (http://www.jejuweekly.com)
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