Chinese Taipei turned the formbook on its head by beating top seeds and defending champions Korea 34-29 in extra time to book their place in the Olympus Capital Asian Junior Rugby Championship final against host nation Hong Kong.
The number five seeds, who had upset Thailand on day one, fought back impressively from 22-12 down in the second half with tries from forwards Sun Hsin-Chien, Chen Yu-Hui and Wang Yu-Hsian setting up the unexpected win.
However as soon as they had taken the lead Chinese Taipei allowed Korea to level the scores at 29-29 with centre Young Soo Nam touching down and Yun Su Woong kicking the crucial conversion with four minutes remaining at the Hong Kong Football Club.
Neither side could break the deadlock and so extra time was needed, Sun Hsin-Chien proving Chinese Taipei's match winner six minutes into this with the replacement touching down his third try of the semi final to spark the celebrations.
Chinese Taipei will now face Hong Kong in the final at 17:30 local time on Saturday after the Under 20 tournament hosts proved too strong for Sri Lanka and pulled clear in the second half to win 51-10 in the other semi final.
Korea, who had received a bye into the semi finals as the top seeds, must regroup to face Sri Lanka in the third place play-off, while Thailand will play Malaysia for fifth place in the seven-team tournament after the Malaysians overcame Singapore 46-10 with captain Az-Zuhran Zainal scoring two of their tries.
