Spirited Chinese Taipei produced the biggest upset of the tournament when they defeated the mighty South Korea by 24-07 in their 2014 JWRT Asian qualifying match worked out at the Race Course International Rugby Stadium on a hot Wednesday afternoon.
All odds were on the Korean side before the start of the match as they beat the hosts, Sri Lanka on Sunday and Chinese Taipei lost to Hong Kong by 44-05. Korean fly-half Gumin Han kicked off the match under blue skies. Chinese Taipei executed their game plan brilliantly as they were in the attack from the outset of the match.
After 5 minutes of intense attacking, Taipei finally managed to score their first points through second five-eighth Chen Hsiu Hsu as he collected a nicely worked pass to score near the corner flag. Full back Lun Wei Chang failed to add the extra points. (CT 05 – SK 00)
Koreans were poor in their lineouts during the Lankan game and their misery continued to haunt them against Taipei as well. Chinese Taipei looked a different unit compared to their performance against Hong Kong. South Korea managed to put pressure back on Taipei after the cooling break but the Chinese Taipei defense held on valiantly preventing the Koreans from going over for a try.
After 28 minutes of grinding rugby by both teams, bulky Taipei center Tzu Fan Chien crossed over the try line after a counter-attacking move initiated from a ball-handling mistake by the Korean full back Jaekwang Jeong. Lun Wei Chang had no problems with the conversion as he added the extra points to a well-deserved try. (CT 12 – SK 00)
No points were scored by both teams until the half-time break as Chinese Taipei dominated the proceedings with their spirited performance.
Half Time: Chinese Taipei 12 – South Korea 00
After the turn around, Taipei play-maker Chen Hsiu Hsu restarted the match. South Korea needed to score as early as possible in the 2nd half to stay in contention of the match and they found their rhythm nearly 10 minutes into the 2nd half as reserve back Sunho Choi touched down after several phases of attacking rugby by the Koreans. Donghwan Choi converted the try as Korea reduced the deficit. (CT 12 – SK 07)
Handling errors and mistakes at crucial points scoring opportunities slowed down the game drastically as both teams lacked the pace due to the unfamiliar hot temperature which required severe fitness levels.
With only 10 minutes left to the final whistle, Chinese Taipei sealed off the game as they tall and lanky full back Lun Wei Chang ran a superb angle to find a hole in the Korean defense as a stiff defense wall by South Korea was finally breached by the Taipei players. He converted his own try as Taipei stretched the lead to 12 points. (CT 19 – SK 07)
Taipei players looked hungry to win as they were cheering and screaming every lineout win or any particular incident where they got the ball back and few minutes before the end of the match, winger Yun Jung Lin scored near the corner flag after their number 8 Ssu Wei Ho gained valuable meters by a stunning run. He ran in the hard yards and sucked in the last man of defense to offload it to his winger to run down and touch down. Place kicker Lun Wei Chang failed to add the extra points. (CT 24 – SK 07)
Chinese Taipei was finally signaled as the worthy winners of this game as referee blew the final whistle. Koreans playing their 1st game which started at 2.30pm struggled to cope up to their potential and game plan which was accurate against Sri Lanka.
Full Time: Chinese Taipei 24 – South Korea 07
Referee – Tim Baker
