The majority of sports shows on Netflix are designed around the premise of humanizing superstar athletes and showcasing them away from sport. Drive to Survive, Starting 5, and Receiver — all wonderful in their own right, but Korea’s Rugged Rugby: Conquer or Die is a different animal. Devoid of big money and household names, it instead focuses on the sport itself — serving as a love letter celebrating people who play sport for the love of the game.
‘Rugged Rugby’ is the best Netflix sports show you’re not watching
The Korean rugby reality show is endearing, wonderful, and a must-watch.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
From rugby-based minigames to full 80-minute matches, Rugged Rugby shines in an entirely different way, and even people who know nothing about the sport owe it to themselves to give it a try.
The wild world of Korean rugby
From the outset, Rugged Rugby makes it abundantly clear that nobody featured is famous, rich, or appreciated. Establishing that rugby is a growing sport in Korea, there is no professional league, no paychecks — heck, there aren’t even fans attending games. Instead, these are groups of people who gather and compete, simply because they love playing.
The producers set up a competition to find the best rugby team in Korea with a cash prize of 300 million won, which sounds like a metric ton, but in reality it’s a little over $200,000 and needs to be split between all 15 players on the team. Still, it’s more than these people have ever been paid for playing, but more than the money it’s about the bragging rights.
Without a true pro league in Korea, teams are instead formed from universities, businesses, and the armed forces. These are essentially rec league teams who just love to play, and this is a brighter stage than they could ever imagine.
The teams in the first season are:
- Korea University: A collegiate powerhouse with tradition
- Yonsei University: An incredibly prestigious academic university with a struggling team
- KEPCO: A company team from the Korea Electric and Power Corporation
- POSCO E&C: A company team from an engineering and construction company
- Hyundai Glovis: The company team for Hyundai’s logistics branch
- OK Man: Another company team, representing the OK Financial Group
- Korean Armed Forces Athletic Corps: A team made up of armed service members
Players take this incredibly seriously, and the rivalries are real. Despite being an innately foreign concept of company teams competing on a grand scale, it’s not long to realize how these teams fit in the pecking order, from the newly-formed OK Man, to the white-hot hatred between Korea and Yonsei Universities, as well as KEPCO and POSCO.
The format
The show kicks off with a scrum challenge, a weird rugby variant in small teams, and then a kicking contest to decide the seeding for the tournament. These first episodes establish the must-watch athletes of the season, and which teams are the toughest.
From there the teams compete in games, which are more or less shown in entirety with some creative editing and innovation like putting GoPro cameras on referees and having roaming cameramen on the field to get close to the action.
The commentary is hokie, not all the ideas work, but there’s still something charming to watching these teams compete.
You owe it to yourself to give it a chance
Rugged Rugby is perfect background viewing. You don’t need to intently lock in, and it’s not always the perfect single-screen viewing experience because of how some matches drag — but that doesn’t prevent it being a beautiful, occasionally flawed program focusing on the grassroots of a sport.
The show being so sports-focused is a breathe of fresh air, and something I hope we see more of in the future.
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