The host nation gave their fans plenty to cheer about on Australia Day to set up a final with Argentina, who defeated Spain 40-5 in their one-sided semi-final.

But it was heartbreak for the Blitzboks, who looked on course for victory before a last-gasp try by the Aussies forced sudden-death extra time, leading to Ekanayake's heroics.

The match was a thriller, with James Turner opening the scoring for the Aussies early on before Selvyn Davids provided the spark his team needed to hit back immediately and level the scores courtesy of a superb solo effort.

With 10 minutes gone, Davids scored again to hand the Blitzboks the lead after a great steal from Quewin Nortje set up the counter-attacking opportunity.

But with time running out on the clock, youngster Sidney Harvey hit back for the hosts to level the scores. A successful conversion would have handed the Aussies victory but the ball hit the posts and it was left to extra-time to decide the winner.

The Blitzboks were arguably hard done by in extra time, particularly when Ryan Oosthuizen was controversially yellow-carded when replays appeared to exonerate him, and in the end, they were unable to prevent Ekanayake from scoring the winning try after he sliced through their undermanned defence to run in unopposed.

With that, the Aussies marched on to the final, while the Blitzboks moved on to the third-place play-off contest against Spain.

READ MORE: SA teams counting the cost as Libbok, Louw and Nortje suffer injuries in URC

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