Chinese Taipei gave the home fans something to smile about on Saturday by ending the HSBC Asian Five Nations Division I tournament on a high with a 35-23 defeat of Sri Lanka at Tainan Rugby Park.

The victory means that Singapore, the other team in the round robin tournament, were crowned champions after collecting eight points from their two matches, one more than Chinese Taipei with Sri Lanka bottom with three points.

Singapore can now look forward to playing in the Asian Five Nations Top Five in 2009 with the region's leading sides in defending champions Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Kazakhstan as the replacement for the relegated Arabian Gulf.

Chinese Taipei had seen their own hopes of promotion ended with Singapore's last minute try securing a 23-22 victory on Thursday, but were determined to give the 1,500 crowd something to smile about by beating Sri Lanka.

Only four minutes were on the clock when prop Wu Chung-Ta crashed over the line to convert Chinese Taipei's early pressure into points, full back Chang Wei-Chang kicking the conversion.

Mini fightback for Sri Lanka

Chang and his opposite number Mohamed Sheriff traded two penalties to make it 13-6 in Chinese Taipei's favour. The hosts lost prop Liu Si-Yan to the sin bin on the half hour mark, but Sri Lanka failed to make the most of their one man advantage.

Instead it was Chinese Taipei who increase their lead to 27-6 at half time with tries from captain Pan Koei-Chin and centre Wang Jen-Hsi, who was one of the most impressive players during the tournament.

Sri Lanka did stage a fightback in the second half with Sheriff kicking another penalty before converting wing Saranga Sajith's try just past the hour mark to cut the deficit to 27-16.

However there would be no fairytale comeback for Sri Lanka, who had drawn 20-20 with Singapore in their other match after conceding a last minute try, with Wang scoring his second try of the game to collect a bonus point for his side.

Sri Lanka did score a consolation try through fly half Ashan De Costa, but Chinese Taipei had the final say with fly half Chen Chin-Cheng kicking a penalty to seal the win in a competition which forms part of the region's RWC 2011 qualifying process.