The Winning Try episode 8 review — Tackles faced, power exposed, and justice delivered

The Winning Try turns episode 8 into a pressure test for both the rugby squad and the kids orbiting the shooting range. The hour keeps the camera close to impact and fallout, so every near miss lands with weight. You feel the gap closing on the field and the heat rising around the target as the show builds its tightest drama yet.

The rugby field as a scoreboard for growth

Ung misses the tackle that could have flipped the match, yet in The Winning Try, the team still pushes the reigning champions to the edge and falls by only a few points. Early in the season, they could barely string phases together. Now they control tempo, hold shape, and trade territory with purpose. That shift reads as real progress.

The loss carries bite but also carries proof. Ung’s miscue becomes part of a larger arc within The Winning Try in which the unit trusts assignments, talks louder, and believes the next contact can change the game. It is the kind of defeat that makes tomorrow feel nearer.

If you watch it like a sports commentator would, you see how the rhythm changes. The huddles are sharper, the communication is clearer, every meter gained looks like a small miracle. The scoreboard may still show a loss, but the field shows something else entirely: a team discovering how to play like contenders. That detail gets circled in red in any analyst’s notes, the foundation taking shape in The Winning Try.

The shooting range and the stench of favoritism

The shooting subplot in The Winning Try lights a different fuse. Seo U-jin stands on the podium with silver, and the spotlight slides to a father who throws money and pull at every lever to tilt outcomes. It is clear Seo U-jin outperforms, which turns his meddling into a slow burn of frustration.

The drama frames this as a clash between kids who earn every inch and adults who stack the deck, and that tension builds a knot in your throat. You want to hug these kids because they keep showing up, even when The Winning Try puts the system against them and whispers that effort will never be enough.

In broadcast booth terms, it is the equivalent of a rigged call from a referee, the kind that makes fans throw their arms up in fury. It is that dirty tilt. Yet what makes the moment sting even more is Seo U-jin’s composure. She keeps firing, keeps standing, keeps proving with every shot that talent cannot be erased, no matter how many hands try to push her aside, an essential highlight in The Winning Try.

Meanwhile, the coach's scheme centers on pairing Na Seol-hyun ahead of harder working teammates because of who her father is. That favor hits like a cheap shot in the gut, and it could not have landed at a worse time.

The report that flips the script

When the committee gathers once again to plot the rugby team’s elimination, the script in The Winning Try takes a turn. They think they have found another way to bury the squad, but the move backfires spectacularly. The coach of the Korean national team shows up at Garam’s request and delivers a meticulous report on the players, the match, and the growth he witnessed.

Instead of sealing their doomed fate, the report opens doors. University scouts start circling, planning to watch the team’s next practice, and the rugby boys in The Winning Try suddenly shift from underdogs marked for extinction to prospects worth investing in.

From a commentator’s angle, that is the equivalent of a last minute VAR reversal. The whistle is about to confirm a disqualification, then the footage clears the play and puts the crowd on its feet. The vice principal and his allies wear expressions that belong on the blooper reel, faces contorted in disbelief, anger, and the sour taste of defeat.

It is poetic justice broadcast live, and the beauty of it is that no amount of scheming can mute the evidence laid out in black and white by a national coach in The Winning Try’s unmistakable style.

The confrontation that became a breaking point in The Winning Try

This is the most charged episode of the season so far in The Winning Try, and that is considering everything that has already happened. The energy spins faster when we finally get a real insight into Ung’s history. He has been running from contact, terrified to make the tackle, but when his dad shows up for that training scene, he finally executes it perfectly on the coach. That moment is not just physical play, it is Ung reclaiming his power, and The Winning Try knows how to land that emotional hit.

Now for the darkest pulse of the hour. The shooting coach, the one who has been verbally abusive and misogynistic since day one, escalates everything. He blatantly targets Seo U-jin, pushing her when she threatens to expose his favoritism toward Na Seol-hyun because of her father’s clout. In a terrifying moment, he shoves Seo U-jin so hard she smashes into a glass backstop and comes away hurt. Blood stained, terrified, just trying to speak truth to power.

That is when the trainer who has been on leave, Bae Yi-ji, barges in and takes control. She steadies after the shock, lets the moment sharpen her vision, and then shoots. And we do not yet know what happens to that coach. Agony, rage, desperation, this scene nails every one of them.

In The Winning Try, the drama peaks, and this episode is a five point highlight reel, five significant impacts delivered exactly when needed. Five out of five, no doubt.