La jugada ganadora

The promotional posters would have you believe The Winning Try is a feel-good rugby sports show. It's kinda not.

Instead, what you get is a massive amount of school drama with some rugby on the side. Rugby is just icing on the cake. The actual screen time of rugby being played is shockingly low.

Rather, what's really here is a bunch of old crusty men scheming episode after episode with annoying little plans to set themselves up for promotions and to get rid of Joo Gam-ram (ML) from his coaching job.

Then there is the entire storyline the female lead goes through as an air pistol coach. Of course there's romance between the ML and her. But you can't forget that each individual player on the rugby and air pistol teams needs development too! Don't forget, the ML has his own problems he has to deal with alongside trying to keep his job every episode. Did I mention the entire air pistol sport takes just as much screen time as the rugby segments?

Simply put, the show is doing too much with so little time.

If you manage to enjoy the different storylines, it is rather enjoyable.

The kids have heart, and the ending is satisfying.

Watch this if you want to see the most charming series ever. It has everything you want in a simple K-drama: lots of adorable men, strong women, a few villains, a little bit of intrigue, comedy and whimsy, just enough romance, and many heartwarming sport bits.

Highly recommended if you want to watch something uncomplicated and addictive.

A disgraced rugby star (drug abuse) is hired by an athletics school to coach a bunch of no hopers. The female principal Miss Kang is an old friend of his. She seems to have some power but is easily over ridden by the dirty tricks of the schools corrupt officials The story begins with the rugby captain not accepting him - and the rest of the team going along with him. However when he takes up the cudgels for them they soon change their minds.

And this is where the story gets bogged down. Every time he beats a challenge another is presented to him by the corrupt officials - it goes on and on - every scene they pull a dirty trick on him which he narrowly overcomes. To add insult to injury this is one of Netflix's drawn out series that takes weeks to watch. I was bored by the constant conflict and the poor acting of some of the cast. What passes for Korean comedy does not appeal to me.

To make matters worse the resolution is obvious and I saw no reason to endure the never ending same scenario until the end of the month.

This was a losing game for me.

The 1st episode sets up the premise.

The 2nd episode gets interesting. The story goes deeper into the meaning of sports/rugby that can be applied to life. It is exciting to see how the underdogs will overcome all odds.

Overall, the drama covers serious social & system issues, peppered with humour. Lastly, tons of eye-candies.

The disgraced star juicer, Ju guam teaches a failing highschool rugsby team. Everyone is sacrificing their jobs because of the vice principal who just wants to support his daughter in her shooting sport and will sacrifice anyone to help his daughter suceed. Classic greed corruption.

You find out around three or four episodes in the reason why he juiced.. Always rooting for the underdog everyone hates.