The Winning Try Ending Explained: The drama 트라이: 우리는 기적이 된다 brings together a cohesive collective of talent led by Yoon Kye-sang in a complex performance as rugby star turned coach Ju Ga-ram, haunted by a troubled past but determined on redemption. He is ably assisted by Lim Se-mi as the enthusiastic and fast-talking shooting coach Bae I-ji, whose storyline is a mixture of ambition and sacrifice.
Yun Seong-jun, the relentless rugby captain, weighed with personal demons and the future of the team, is portrayed by Kim Yo-han. Cho Han-gyeol and Hwang Sung-bin, Kim E-jun and others in supporting roles, complete the world of the players at Hanyang High. Led by helmers Kim Jae-hyun and Kim Ji-yeon and creator Im Jin-a, the 12-episode Netflix sports drama is a mixture of cutthroat competition and gentle issues of heartbreak, teamwork, and redemption.
Korean Drama The Winning Try Recap
For twelve episodes, kdrama The Winning Try takes audiences on an emotional journey through the rise of Hanyang High School’s struggling rugby team. Once dismissed as a forgotten sports program, the team is revived when former player Ga-ram reluctantly steps in as coach. His unconventional methods, rooted in his own regrets and past failures, shape the players not only as athletes but as young men confronting real-life obstacles.
The plays intersect a range of character narratives: Seong-jun with expectations and a guilty knowledge of taking performance-enhancing drugs; I-ji with her eagerness to shoot at odds with her new work of mentorship; and Woo-jin with an inability to escape the authority of his father and mother. In them, the plays individually and in combination explore endurance in the face of personal and institutional opposition.
The Winning Try is compelling because it does not resort to sporting platitudes. The series explores the corrupting of the school systems, sports politics, and burdens of choice on the children and the adults in the same breath. Ga-ram’s personal health and moral compromises are the emotional linchpin, but it is the maturing of the students that brings the heart of the show truly into the picture.
With the Nationals coming in, the rugby team at Hanyang has been changed from underdogs into contenders. But the victory in the game — standing up against things that are not right and against fraud and seeking personal redemption — is worth as much in the long run as the final whistle in the game itself. The multi-level narrative of the drama makes the ending a rewarding payoff of each of the character arcs.
Kdrama The Winning Try Ending Explained
What Exactly Was Ga-ram’s Illness, and How Did it Shape the Season?
Ga-ram has been diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, a neuromuscular disease characterised by weakness and fatigue of the muscles. Explanation clears up the majority of the foreshadowing from the preceding story — blurred vision, fainting in practice, and the necessity of medicine and the operation that follows. Over the course of a multi-episode arc, he withholds the severity of the disease from the team (skipping a month of check-ups at a time, withholding medicine from them at a time, and rejecting the operation) because he does not want to jeopardise the team at a time of rebuilding. That secretiveness causes dramatic tension: his bravery is commendable, but at the same time causes risk for the team and his life.
The illness also drives major plot beats: his secret tests the loyalty of colleagues (some suspect doping rather than disease), it gives the antagonists material to use against him (the reporter Hui-tae and the vice-principal probe his medical visits), and it provides a ticking clock—Ga-ram delays mandatory surgery until the Nationals. In Episode 11, his condition forces him into the hospital and into medical leave, which could have destroyed Hanyang’s title hopes. Instead, his recorded strategies, the players’ commitment, and his dramatic return before the Daesang final turn the illness into a crucible that forges the team’s identity.
How Did the Team Resolve Internal Conflicts?
The team’s internal fractures are what almost did them in — Seong-jun’s resentment over Ga-ram’s past, Ung’s paralysis about tackling after a traumatic childhood incident, Woo-jin’s pressure-filled relationship with his mother, and I-ji’s professional struggle with the yips and the school politics. The show doesn’t paper over these problems; it forces the characters to face them in scenes that often play out off the pitch.
For example, Ung’s tackling fear is traced back to an incident where he seriously injured a bully; the squad’s detective work (confronting the bully and getting the defamatory post removed) plus Ga-ram’s relentless tackling drills break the psychological block. The team’s decision to kneel, beg, and publicly support one another is a repeating motif — loyalty becomes the glue.
Did the Hanyang Rugby Team Win the Nationals?
The climactic game against Daesang is framed as a long, breathless microcosm of the show. It is no one-move miracle victory, but the aggregation of every lesson taught. Tensions elsewhere are in the form of injuries and fatigue — Hanyang has limited subs, and players like Seong-jun and Hyeong-sik are carrying injuries.
The game is of two big turnabouts: the first is at halftime when Hyung-sik is injured (he has stitches and no anaesthesia, so he keeps playing), and the other is a late-game maul. The maul — a compact forward scrummage-like burst where sheer commitment, coordination and strength register the yardage — becomes the ideal allegory of the Hanyang experience. It calls upon each man to scrunch up, shoulder to shoulder and push forward.
Tactically, Ga-ram’s pregame plans (he prepared strategies for all opponents and kept Daesang’s plan for last) plus the players’ execution are crucial. The team’s willingness to sacrifice — Hyeong-sik playing through pain, Ung finally making the tackle when it matters, Seong-jun accepting role changes — turns the maul into a decisive push. Crowd momentum and intercut flashbacks amplify the emotional stakes, and when the maul creeps over the line, it is both a literal score and a figurative reclaiming of identity for Hanyang. The Winning Try episode 12 times these beats so that the victory feels earned, gritty, and character-driven.
Who was Responsible for the Crimes?
The post-match chapters tie up the main plots neatly. The crooked officials (the scheming of the vice-principal and the admission fraud masterminded by Nak-gyun) are unmasked with evidence produced at the Nationals — the inspectors and Seol-hyeon’s father come with evidence, and the embezzlement is unmasked. That public unmasking causes the predictable occupational destruction of the schemers and brings Principal Kang back into institutional normality. Nak-gyun’s destruction is especially bitter since he attempted to drag other people with him down; his unmasking is half-confessional and half-revengeful.
At the personal level, the cast delivers the ending that the watchers crave: Ga-ram returns and the team wins the championship title — Seong-jun gets a scholarship at Yonhee University, Ung gets into the youth national team, the future captain is to be Hyeong-sik, and Tae-pung returns in the epilogue. I-ji’s decision to become a coach and moral support to U-jin led to the success of U-jin in the gold; Woo-jin is freed from the control of his mother.
Do Ga-ram and I-ji’s Journeys Lead to a Happy Ending?
The relationship between I-ji and Ga-ram in Netflix’s The Winning Try was never a simple romance — it was about endurance, sacrifice, and mutual commitment to their teammates. Ga-ram’s struggle with Myasthenia Gravis and his resolve to remain with the team became a main storyline of the show. Even after undergoing surgery and questioning whether he could come back as a coach, he kept the players motivated, at one point actually recording strategies and encouraging messages for them at Nationals.
Whereas I-ji had to grapple with the agonising choice of opting out of her shooting career and giving up her own competition in order for her to lead U-jin to success. These acts of sacrifice reveal just how each of the characters is willing to put the other ahead of themselves, and therefore, the eventual coming together of the couples is all the more gratifying.
By the end of The Winning Try, it repays their endurance with a sincere and emotional conclusion. After the Nationals dust and the scandals of corruption have subsided, Ga-ram and I-ji at long last give themselves room for personal fulfilment. Their proposal is more than a sentimental move — it represents healing, maturation, and the ability to forge a future together after sharing adversity.
The show establishes emphatically that the two of them complete each other not only professionally as trainers but also personally as partners in life, with the same principles of loyalty and responsibility. Ultimately, The Winning Try ending makes certain that the two individuals who had given the most to the team find happiness on their own terms, providing viewers with the extremely gratifying conclusion that they had been longing for.
Also Read: The Winning Try Review: Regret, Redemption, and Rugby Fuel Comeback
