By Baek Byung-yeul
Samsung Heavy Industries Rugby Club, one of Korea’s three semi-professional rugby teams, has been disbanded due to the company cutting its sports club budget.
“Samsung Heavy’s rugby club hasn’t made their official comment yet, but we’ve confirmed that the company decided to close the rugby club,” Korea Rugby Union Secretary General Park Tae-woong told The Korea Times on Tuesday.
The secretary general expressed regret about the decision, but the country’s rugby league would continue as scheduled, he said.
“Now we have only two semi-pro teams left ― Korea Electric Power Corp. and POSCO Engineering & Construction,” Park said. “But the semi-professional rugby league will be held as scheduled because we also have five college teams in the top division league.”
Insiders say the decision came after Samsung Group’s plan to disband some of the sports clubs it owns as part of cost cutting.
Park said the KRU asked Samsung Heavy Industries to retain its team at the end of last year. In January, KRU officials and rugby players held a press conference to urge the company to keep the team, but to no avail.
He said every player on the disbanded team was doing on-the-job training because the company had decided to recruit them as full-time employees.
Founded in 1995, Samsung Heavy Industries Rugby Club rose to the top at the National Sports Festival for 10 straight years, from 1996 to 2005.
The team also played a pivotal role when Korea dominated men’s rugby in the Asian Games 15 years ago, sending many players to represent the country.
At that time, more than half the players from Samsung Heavy were included in the country’s national rugby team and Korea won gold medals in the 1998 and 2002 Asian Games men’s 7-players and 15-players rugby competitions.
Rugby insiders say the disbandment will hurt the country’s rugby team competing in the 2016 Olympics.