Emosi Labati is looking to ruck and maul his way into Korean rugby history

Fijian winger Emosi Labati arrived in the Korean Super Rugby League this year with one goal in mind: To become the best player in Korea and maybe one day go on to represent the country.

Hyundai Glovis Rugby winger Emosi Labati [JOONGANG ILBO]

Fijian winger Emosi Labati arrived in the Korean Super Rugby League this year with one goal in mind: To become the best player in Korea and maybe one day go on to represent the country.

“I am no way near [that goal], and my mom told me to not even think about coming back home until I become the best in the country,” Labati told the JoongAng Ilbo after he made his debut for Hyundai Glovis Rugby earlier this year.

The 19-year-old winger joined Hyundai Glovis through the foreign player draft system that the Korea Super Rugby League adopted this year.

There are three main forms of rugby: Rugby union — as seen in the Rugby World Cup — the scaled-down rugby sevens, and the less common rugby league.

Tries, conversions and penalties are scored in the same way in rugby union and rugby sevens and, like every other form of the game, it is a full-contact sport.

Labati has been displaying outstanding form in both defense and attack since he joined Hyundai Glovis earlier this year. He was named man of the match when he led his side to a 41-39 victory over the Kepco Rugby Team in the first leg of the 2023 Korea Super Rugby League championship on April 8.

Labati is not the only member of his family making a name for himself on the rugby pitch. Two of his cousins were both well-known players in the Fiji national rugby team, prized for their strength in a team that was physically able to hold its own against far larger countries.

Like his cousins, Labati relies on his considerable strength and speed. Those weapons have been part of his arsenal since his middle school days, when he was already 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) and weighed 100 kilograms (220 pounds).

Labati first came to Korea in December, 2019 as a high school student to play rugby in a country that he knew nothing about.

“I did not know anything about Korea, apart from Son Heung-min and a few Korean dramas I had watched with my mom,” Labati said. “But I am very adventurous. I believed going for a challenge in Korea would be helpful for my rugby career rather than playing it safe in Fiji.”

Emosi Labati [JOONGANG ILBO]

Labati joined Seoul National University High School’s rugby team in March, 2020, part of a push from the school to reinforce their squad with foreign talent. While rugby is not that popular in Korea on a professional level, high school and university leagues remain surprisingly active.

Adapting to the new environment was tougher for Labati than actually playing rugby. He trained after school and even studied Korean for three to four hours after training.

“High school students started preparing for the college entrance exam, but I had to learn the Korean alphabet first,” Labati said.

Although his Korean was not great, Labati still communicated with his friends through body language and improved his Korean by memorizing Korean rap lyrics.

Labati’s high school life was made especially tough because he was unable to go back home to Fiji during his three years in Korean high school due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I was able to focus my life in Korea thanks to Covid-19,” Labati said. “My mom always told me, ‘Come back after you finish everything strong.'

“I became pretty fluent in Korean after two years. Now I even understand young Koreans’ newly-coined words.”

Nam Yong-hoon, head coach of the Seoul National University High School’s rugby team, also sees big potential in Labati.

“Three Fijian players including Labati joined the team at the beginning, but two of them dropped out because they could not overcome the homesickness and injuries,” Nam said. “Labati is an incredibly diligent player and I am sure he will be a star with the special talent he has.”

Labati’s ultimate goal is to one day earn the right to wear the Taeguk mark and represent Korea as a naturalized player.

“My dream is to secure Korea’s first win at the Olympics,” Labati said. “I was inspired by Son’s performance at the Qatar World Cup, and I want to become the Son of rugby.”

Only rugby sevens is contested in the Olympics. Sevens is a scaled-down form of rugby union and is played on the same size field, but with much faster gameplay.

Rugby sevens has teams of seven players playing in seven-minute halves, rather than 15 players playing 40-minute halves. After the first half, the teams are given a one-minute break before heading straight back onto the field again.

Rugby was removed from the Olympics after the 1924 Games in Paris, but made a comeback for the first time in 92 years, at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Korea failed to qualify that time around, but made it to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. While Korea is yet to win a game at the Games, Labati's home country Fiji took gold in both Rio and Tokyo.

BY PI JOO-YOUNG [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]